Despite the public outcry over the shooting of Renee Goode in Minnesota, the US Department of Justice has said no to investigating the ICE agent.
United States Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has said that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will not kill an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent. Renee Nicole McLean is goodIt also confirms reports that Minnesota is seeking charges against top officials for encouraging protests.
Speaking to Fox News Sunday night, Blanche said the Justice Department’s civil rights unit would not bow to pressure to investigate the shooting death of Good, 37, a Minneapolis resident and mother earlier this month.
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“We don’t just go out and investigate every time an officer is forced to defend himself against somebody,” Blanche said. “We investigate when it’s appropriate to investigate.”
“So, no, we don’t investigate. And if the time comes that we need to, we will, but not now,” Blanche added.
An increasingly tense standoff between residents and federal authorities has erupted in Minneapolis since 37-year-old Renee Good, a mother of three, was fatally shot behind the wheel of her car on Jan. 7 as ICE Officer Jonathan Ross protested.
Blanche also said the footage of Goode’s death had already been “reviewed by millions and millions of Americans because it was recorded on a phone when it happened”.
However, an analysis by Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) and APM Reports found that questions still remain about the shooting, including why it took more than 10 minutes before CPR was administered to Good.
According to MPR and APM reports, ICE agents left Goode “bleeding and alone in the car for about three minutes” and “pulled away to help a man who identified himself as a doctor”.
President Donald Trump’s administration has argued that Ross, the ICE agent who shot Goode four times, was acting in self-defense.
Top Trump officials, including Vice President J.D. Vance and White House counsel Stephen Miller, have said that ICE officials “total immunity” for their immigration enforcement actions.
Meanwhile, lawyers representing Good’s family said last week they had launched their own “civil investigation” into her death.
“The people of Minneapolis and this country really, really care about what happened to Renee Good on January 7, 2026, and are committed to understanding how she could have been killed in the street after dropping her son off at school,” attorney Antonio Romanucci said in a statement.
Top Minnesota Democrats are under investigation
Blanche also independently Confirmed reports The DOJ has opened an investigation into Minnesota governor and former vice presidential candidate Tim Walz as well as Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, accusing the two Democratic leaders of “encouraging criminals to take to the streets and obstruct ICE.”
Blanche’s comments are the first time a member of the Trump administration has confirmed media reports that Walz and Frey are under investigation.
“It doesn’t matter who you are, whether you’re the governor, the mayor or whoever is attacking snow on the street, you cannot, under federal law, obstruct a federal official from doing their job, and that’s what we’re looking at,” Blanche said.
Responding to earlier media reports that the DOJ had opened an investigation into him, Frey said he was “not afraid”.
“This is a clear attempt to intimidate me into standing up for Minneapolis, local law enforcement and residents against the chaos and danger this administration has brought to our city,” Frey said in a post on X.
Meanwhile, Walz responded indirectly to the reports, saying in a statement: “Weapons the justice system and intimidate political opponents is a dangerous, authoritarian tactic.”
Walz also drew comparisons to US Democratic Senators Alyssa Slotkin and Mark Kelly, who are under investigation by the Trump administration after appearing with other Democratic lawmakers in a video urging members of the military to resist “illegal orders” from their superiors.