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DENVER (AP) — Renee Good was a beacon of joy, known for her love of sparkles, laughter, and any opportunity to celebrate. She embraced nearly everyone she encountered and had a reputation for always being fashionably late.
“Renee had this incredible ability to make you feel cherished and important,” shared her mother, Donna Ganger, on Friday. “It wasn’t until she was gone that I truly understood the depth of her impact,” she added, reflecting on the tragic loss of her daughter, who was fatally shot by an immigration officer during a federal operation in Minneapolis.
Tim Ganger, Renee’s father, described her as someone who was “slow to anger, quick to love, and eager to care.” He emphasized that these qualities truly captured her essence.
Renee, a 37-year-old mother of three, lost her life on January 7 amidst a surge of immigration enforcement in the Minneapolis area, an event that ignited widespread protests. Her death, followed by that of another U.S. citizen, Alex Pretti, just weeks later, fueled national outrage and intensified demands to moderate immigration enforcement practices.
In a heartfelt interview conducted in Colorado, where some of the family resides, Renee’s parents and her brothers, Brent and Luke Ganger, spoke to the Associated Press. They shared stories of the joy Renee found in everyday life, expressed their profound grief, and voiced their hope that her untimely death might inspire meaningful change in a nation marked by division.
“It’s going to be hard in the future,” Donna Ganger said. “It’s going to be kind of a constant pain.”
Settling in Minneapolis
Good, who graduated from college later in life, was volunteering in a local school district and working as a substitute teacher when she was killed, her parents said.
“She was working so hard to get her education, and then she was finally able to use it, and I could just tell how happy she was and how fulfilled,” Donna Ganger said.
Good, her 6-year-old son and her partner Becca Good — the women were not legally married, according to a family lawyer, but referred to one another as wives — had only recently relocated to Minneapolis from Kansas City, Missouri, settling in a quiet residential street in a tight-knit neighborhood known for its progressive activism.
In social media accounts, Renee Good described herself as a “poet and writer and wife and mom.” On Pinterest, a profile picture shows her smiling and holding a young child, alongside posts about tattoos, hairstyles and home decorating.
The family “settled very quickly into the community in Minneapolis,” said Donna Ganger, describing how the neighborhood had also welcomed the rest of the family when they came after the shooting. They see that as the result of the love that Good had showed her new neighbors.
“It was incredible to receive that back,” Luke Ganger said.
Donna Ganger held a stuffed, toy owl as she spoke, a gift from her daughter, who knew how much she loved the birds. It had sparkles on its feet, a reminder of Good’s love for glitter.
At Good’s memorial service, a table of glitter had been set out for guests. Donna Ganger had put a piece on a lens of her glasses and it’s remained there.
“She just kind of sparkled all the way through,” said Donna Ganger. “I think of her and I look down and see my little sparkle.”
An American blend
The family is “a very American blend,” Luke Ganger said recently in testimony to Congress. “We vote differently, and we rarely completely agree on the finer details of what it means to be a citizen of this country.”
Yet “we have always treated each other with love and respect,” he said.
On Friday, the family didn’t want to discuss the specifics of their differences, but Donna Ganger said she’d long prayed for guidance: “Before all this happened I said ‘Make me a wise woman.’”
In the hours after Good’s death, Trump administration officials said she had been shot as she tried to drive her car into an immigration officer. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Good had committed “an act of domestic terrorism.”
But as details of the confrontation emerged, and criticism of the crackdown began growing, administration comments softened.
President Donald Trump said he’d been told that Tim Ganger had supported him.
“He was all for Trump, loved Trump. And, you know, it’s terrible,” he told reporters. “I hope he still feels that way.”
Tim Ganger declined to talk about his political affiliation or whether it had changed with his daughter’s killing.
“I think I’m just going to leave that go,” he said. “There’s so many other important things,” to deal with now.
But family members said they hoped their ability to get along would be an inspiration.
“Our purpose through this whole tragic, difficult, unbelievable time, is to have something good come out of this,” Tim Ganger said. “Otherwise the senselessness of this is overwhelming.”
Sadness echoed in Donna Ganger’s voice as she talked about navigating family differences.
“Sometimes I’m just silly, you know, and I joke with them and I’m goofy,” she said. “But I want to be able to talk about hard things — and that’s hard sometimes with your own family to talk about hard things that maybe you don’t agree on. And I don’t want there to be any hardships between us or hurt.”
“But it’s important that we learn to be careful with our words, but share them in a deep way,” she said. “It’s really important.”
Family members only spoke in general ways about the change they’d like to see come from Good’s death.
“I think it’s evident that something is broken, right?” said Brent Ganger. “And when something is broken, you have to take a deep look to see what it is that can be changed and fixed in order for it to not happen again.”
The morning of the shooting
On the morning of the shooting, as immigration raids and protests were flaring across the city, Becca Good has said they stopped their car in the street to support neighbors during an immigration operation.
Video shows Renee Good in a red SUV blocking part of the road and repeatedly honking her horn.
Two immigration officers get out of a truck and one orders Good to open her door. She reverses briefly, then turns the steering wheel as the officer says again, “get out of the car.” Almost simultaneously, Becca Good, standing in the street shouts, “drive, baby, drive!”
When Good begins pulling forward, an ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle pulls his weapon and fires at least two shots into the car, killing Good.
Weeks later, Tim Ganger said he hoped the family’s tragedy would lead to change, though “I’m not even sure what that will look like.”
“But for something good, for people to stop and take a breath and take a look and have a dialog,” he said. “That’s the broader mission of what we want, for people to come together and take care of each other.”
The Justice Department has said it sees no basis to open a federal civil rights investigation into Good’s death, but the family has hired a law firm that is conducting its own investigation and exploring potential legal action.
Family members said no one from the federal government has contacted them about Good’s killing, and they are unsure if anyone will be held accountable.
“All we can do is speak out and hope that our sincere words are enough to enact some kind of change,” Brent Ganger said.
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Sullivan reported from Minneapolis.