The physique of Renee Good had not but been turned over to her household when the Trump administration announced her deadly capturing by an ICE agent was in response to “an act of domestic terrorism.” Later, sources advised NCS the Justice Department stopped investigating the agent and federal authorities refused to share information with native investigators.
Good’s household, together with her accomplice, Becca, determined to get solutions on their very own. They employed the legal group related to a different case of lethal pressure by regulation enforcement in Minneapolis – the 2020 demise of George Floyd underneath the knee of police officer Derek Chauvin.
“The community is not receiving transparency about this case elsewhere, so our team will provide that to the country,” said the regulation agency of Romanucci & Blandin, the same lawyers who represented Floyd’s household in a civil lawsuit.
The Floyd case resulted in a $27 million payout by the metropolis of Minneapolis, which the agency stated was the largest pretrial settlement of a wrongful demise civil rights case.
This month the attorneys despatched letters to federal companies related to Good’s shooting, saying they “anticipate bringing legal action” over allegations together with extreme pressure and negligence and demanding proof be preserved. One of these letters was despatched to the house of Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who fired the fatal shots January 7 in Minneapolis.
“We need to know based on the totality of circumstances – not only looking at the video, but also looking at the intent that was there, looking at reasonable police practices,” household lawyer Antonio Romanucci told NCS’s Erin Burnett final week.
Taking on the metropolis of Minneapolis in the George Floyd case was difficult, however Romanucci acknowledges this case – suing the United States authorities for the conduct of an immigration officer – is tougher.
“Legal action against the federal government is even more complex,” Romanucci said.
For most of the nation’s historical past, suing the United States for hurt brought on by a authorities worker was impossible. Until 1946, most residents looking for compensation for a negligent or wrongful act by a civil servant might get it solely by way of a literal act of Congress, case by case.
“And Congress hated it because people who had these claims would just constantly contact their congressman to say, ‘How’s my claim going?’” stated Paul Figley, professor emeritus at the American University Washington College of Law, an professional on tort instances in opposition to the authorities.
The end result was Federal Tort Claims Act – often known as the FTCA – a landmark second for victims’ rights.
“The Federal Tort Claims Act provides a vehicle for people to use when they’ve been injured by the government,” Figley stated.
But it’s a car on a really bumpy highway, as the regulation created a quantity of particular situations that should be met earlier than an individual may even file a lawsuit. A plaintiff first should file a claim with the authorities asking for the alternative to take a seat down and negotiate a deal out of court docket. That course of can take as much as six months.
It’s a delay not solely in getting the case to a decide but additionally in the crucial course of of discovery – the alternative to demand proof from the authorities.
In their letter to the authorities companies, the Good household’s attorneys indicated their curiosity in a protracted record of proof, together with gadgets and knowledge from the car Good was driving, information of Ross’ accidents after the capturing and any statements he made about use of pressure and protesters.
The lead lawyer says proof – together with video – that exhibits the full context of the capturing can be crucial to the case.
“Even if that law enforcement officer was in front of the vehicle, did he place himself there?” Romanucci requested in an interview with the Minnesota Star Tribune this month. “And if he did, that is considered officer-related jeopardy.”
The Trump administration has made it clear all through the aftermath of Good’s capturing that it has little curiosity in a broad investigation of the officer’s actions. Vice President JD Vance said this month at a White House information convention Ross is “protected by absolute immunity” from felony prosecution, a claim disputed by many legal specialists.
It shouldn’t be clear if Vance was suggesting Ross would even be immune from civil lawsuits, however it’s a sign that the administration is unlikely to make a high-dollar cope with Good’s household throughout the pre-lawsuit claims course of, particularly since that deal must be accredited at prime ranges of the Justice Department.
If the Good household can’t make a cope with the administration throughout the claims course of, the subsequent step is submitting a lawsuit. But even then, the federal authorities will get particular safety.
Under the FTCA, a tort lawsuit in opposition to the US must be filed in federal court docket, even when an officer is accused of violating state regulation. And there isn’t a proper to a jury trial. In distinction to the George Floyd civil lawsuit in opposition to Minneapolis – a federal case that might have been determined by a jury – every thing in a tort lawsuit in opposition to the federal authorities, from guilt or innocence to the quantity of a possible reward, could be determined by a federal decide.
“Any defense that is available under state law to a private person defendant is available to the United States in an FTCA suit,” Figley stated.
In the Good capturing, that would come with protection assertions – already made in public statements by administration officers – that Ross reasonably thought his life was in danger when he fired his gun and that the capturing was justified.
While federal regulation makes Ross immune from being immediately sued for assault or wrongful demise in Good’s capturing, he may very well be named as a defendant – and find yourself in entrance of a jury – in a go well with accusing him of denying Good’s civil rights. But Figley says these instances – often known as Bivens fits after the Supreme Court decision that first made them attainable – are even harder to win and infrequently price the bother for victims.
“Most officers don’t have enough money to make it worthwhile,” he stated.
The George Floyd civil case introduced by the same legal group cited a federal law that enables state workers to be sued for civil rights violations “under color of law.” That act – passed in the wake of a wave of terror by authorities employees affiliated with racist teams like the Ku Klux Klan – doesn’t apply to federal workers and couldn’t be utilized in a case in opposition to Ross.
With recent rulings from the Supreme Court discovering that immigration officers have intensive immunity from lawsuits – and the Trump administration’s inversion of the preliminary investigation of the capturing into an investigation of Good herself – Romanucci acknowledges an uphill battle forward however says the household’s major aim is to get the full story of her demise.
“People in Minneapolis and across this country truly, truly care about what happened to Renee Good on January 7, 2026,” and are dedicated to understanding how she might have been killed, Romanucci said.