Senior Minnesota attorneys step down amid DOJ pressure to investigate Renee Nicole Good’s widow

MINNESOTA, MINNEAPOLIS: Senior federal prosecutors in Minnesota have resigned from the US Department of Justice amid controversy over the handling of the aftermath of an ICE agent’s shooting of a civilian.

The departures come after the DOJ pushed for an investigation of the victim’s widow and declined to pursue a civil rights investigation into the fatal shooting. The resignations have highlighted internal tensions within the department and raised questions about prosecutorial priorities.

Resignations of Minnesota prosecutors and DOJ response

Four prosecutors in Minnesota resigned after the DOJ pushed to investigate the widow of Renee Nicole Good and rebuffed an investigation into the ICE officer who fatally shot her the previous week.

Among those who quit was Joseph Thompson, a veteran prosecutor previously appointed by President Donald Trump to serve as Minnesota’s acting US attorney and first assistant US attorney. Thompson had overseen a major fraud investigation that was central to the president’s deployment of federal law enforcement officers in the state.

Thompson was one of at least four career prosecutors reported to have resigned on the same day. Other assistant US attorneys who reportedly left were Melinda Williams, Harry Jacobs, and Thomas Calhoun‑Lopez.

Their abrupt departure followed what has been described as an exodus of officials at the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, driven by frustration with the division chief’s refusal to investigate the fatal shooting of Good. 

In a statement to The Independent, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said that those Civil Rights Division chiefs had already given notice of their departure “well before the events in Minnesota” and that “any suggestion to the contrary is false.” He also stated that “there is currently no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation.”

A DOJ official defended the investigations underway after the killing. The official noted that, as with any officer‑involved shooting, each law enforcement agency conducts its own internal investigation, including the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Professional Responsibility.

The official said that ICE’s internal investigation runs parallel to any FBI investigation. 

Details surrounding Renee Good’s death and department officials’ objections

The resignations were directly tied to the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Good, a 37‑year‑old mother of three, by ICE officer Jonathan Ross on Wednesday, January 7. Good was shot while allegedly appearing to drive away from immigration agents who had surrounded her car.

Subsequent administration statements characterized Good as a “violent rioter” who allegedly attempted to ram the agent’s vehicle in an act of “domestic terrorism.” 

Video footage from multiple witnesses and from Ross himself reportedly shows masked officers approaching Good’s vehicle on a residential street. One officer is heard saying, “get out of the f*****g car,” as another agent pulls on the car door before firing three shots. 

Good’s widow, Becca Good, later said that she and her wife had “stopped to support our neighbors” when the ICE agents arrived, writing that “we had whistles, they had guns.”

Thompson is reported to have objected to the DOJ's refusal to investigate the shooting as a civil rights matter and to have been outraged by what sources described as an alleged demand to pursue a criminal investigation into Becca. 

He initially sought to investigate, in conjunction with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, a state agency that reviews police shootings, though state officials said that the DOJ effectively excluded them.