ICE killing of Renee Good leaves son orphaned and former Kansas City neighbors reeling

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Renee Nicole Good was a wife, an award-winning poet and a creative mother of three who liked to make “messy art” with her two sons and daughter.

On Wednesday, she became known worldwide as the woman shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis. The action, which occurred on a residential street during a targeted ICE operation, sparked shock and outrage and left her 6-year-old son an orphan.

Good, 37, and her partner had connections to Kansas City, living in the area as recently as the fall of 2023, court records show. On Oct. 18, 2023, Good filed a petition in Jackson County Circuit Court to change her last name. She gave an address near the Waldo area of Kansas City.

According to her petition, Good wanted to change her last name from Renee Nicole Macklin to Renee Nicole Macklin Good. Her stated reason for the name change: “I want to share a name with my partner.”

The document said Good had three children, who at the time of the filing were ages 13, 10 and 3. The two older children lived in Colorado, and the youngest lived in Kansas City, it said.

A judgment approving the uncontested name change was entered on Nov. 21, 2023.

Missouri corporation records show that Good and another woman who lived at the same Kansas City address had organized a business in 2024. The company, B. Good Handywork LLC, was organized on Aug. 26, 2024, according to the Secretary of State filing.

The purpose of the business, the document said: “Performs interior and exterior repair, maintenance and upgrade projects in clients’ homes.”

Jennifer Ferguson, who lived across the street from the couple for six to seven months, described them as “just two ladies with a cool kid.”

“Their youngest son, the one that lived with them full-time, and my daughter would play a lot in the front yard,” she said. In the summer, Ferguson said, they put a blow-up swimming pool in the yard.

Good’s two older children would come from Colorado for a month in the summer, she said.

Renee and Becca didn’t work, Ferguson said. She said Becca had recently sold a company and Renee was in graduate school online.

“They lived frugally, they cooked at home, that kind of thing. They didn’t go out and spend money a lot.”

The couple didn’t talk politics, but Ferguson said her understanding when they left Kansas City was that they planned to move to Canada. The couple broke the lease on their home on East 78th Terrace in Waldo and moved out in December 2024, she said.

“I guess they made the decision that if Trump won the election, they were going to get out before the inauguration,” she said.

Ferguson said she didn’t see the two as political activists.

“I can’t see this having been a premeditated thing on their part,” she said. “I think it’s senseless. I just pray that we don’t have more violence over it.”

Good died Wednesday after an ICE agent fired into her Honda Pilot as she appeared to be driving away. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said at a news conference that one of the agent’s vehicles had become stuck in some snow and they were attempting to push it out when Good “weaponized her vehicle” and tried to run over them. Noem called it an act of domestic terrorism and defended the shooting as self-defense.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz disputed the government’s claims. They said the videos showed Good driving away from agents, not trying to hit them. At a Wednesday news conference, Frey angrily told ICE to leave the city.

“This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody getting killed,” he said. “Your only reason for being in our city is to create some kind of safety, and you are doing the opposite.”

Members of the Minneapolis City Council released a statement after Wednesday’s shooting.

“Renee was a resident of our city who was out caring for her neighbors this morning and her life was taken today at the hands of the federal government,” the statement said. “Anyone who kills someone in our city deserves to be arrested, investigated, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas issued a statement Thursday morning.

“Kansas City mourns the loss of a former neighbor, Renee Nicole Good,” Lucas said. “Two things that our country desperately needs are justice and decency. I will put my faith in authorities in Minnesota to conduct a thorough and fair investigation.

“Kansas Citians will extend our condolences to Renee’s family and friends. And, we all will hope Congress actually works to prevent more tragedies like this one.”

A GoFundMe account was set up Wednesday for Good’s wife and the young son who lived with them.

“Please support the wife and son of Renee Good as they grapple with the devastating loss of their wife and mother,” it said. “Renee was pure sunshine, pure love. She will be desperately missed.”

The account had raised $800,000 by late afternoon on Thursday. More than 20,000 donors had contributed, with one giving $10,000.

“From Nebraska — what happened to Renee has been witnessed and felt far beyond one place,” wrote Gonca Cacan, who donated $200. “Many of us are outraged and heartbroken. She was a strong woman who continued to raise her children and contribute goodness and hope to the world. Her life had meaning, and her loss will not be forgotten. My deepest condolences to her family.”

Good was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on April 2, 1988. Her two older children, ages 15 and 12, live in Colorado. The third child, a 6-year-old son, was living with Good and her partner. The boy’s father, Timmy Macklin Jr., was an Air Force veteran and a standup comedian. He died in 2023 at age 36.

Good’s parents live in Valley Falls, Kansas, about 65 miles northwest of Kansas City.

Good’s mother, Donna Ganger, told The Minnesota Star Tribune that “Renee was one of the kindest people I’ve ever known.”

“She was extremely compassionate,” Ganger said. “She’s taken care of people all her life. She was loving, forgiving and affectionate. She was an amazing human being.”

The description on Good’s Instagram site said she was a “Poet and writer and wife and mom and sh---- guitar strummer from Colorado; experiencing Minneapolis, MN.”

In 2020, Wood won an Old Dominion University College Poetry Prize for her poem, “On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs.” The award was administered through a creative writing program at Old Dominion and the Poetry Society of Virginia.

According to her bio on Old Dominion’s Facebook post about the award, Good was from Colorado Springs at the time and was studying creative writing at the university. She graduated in 2020 with a degree in English.

“Her poetry has been published in Metrosphere and Coronado Literary Review, and she currently co-hosts a podcast with her husband, comedian Tim Macklin,” the bio said. “When she is not writing, reading, or talking about writing, she has movie marathons and makes messy art with her daughter and two sons.”

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