A viral crowd-funding campaign that has raised over $1.4 million and counting for Renee Good has been verified authentic, a spokesperson for GoFundMe told Fast Company.
On Wednesday, January 7, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fatally shot Good in Minneapolis. The 37-year-old woman was killed while turning her vehicle away from the officer—as multiple videos clearly show, despite the federal government’s claim to the contrary.
Immediately in the wake of Good’s death, a GoFundMe campaign for her wife, Becca, and six-year-old son appeared online and far surpassed its $50,000 goal with hundreds of thousands of donations. (Good also had two older children from her first marriage, according to media reports.)
GoFundMe initially told Fast Company that it would hold the funds while it worked to verify the campaign. By that point it had, already raised close to half a million dollars.
“Tidal wave of care”
One of the campaign’s co-organizers is listed as Becka Tilson, who is identified as a “friend of the family.”
“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We are here brokenhearted and in awe of your generosity,” Tilson wrote in an update on Thursday. “We will be adding Becca, Renee’s partner as a beneficiary as soon as possible. They will have direct access to all of these funds. Thank you again for your compassion. They feel this tidal wave of care and it really matters.”
Some of Good’s GoFundMe contributors used the “words of support” section to applaud her and deliver scathing takedowns of the Trump administration and its supporters. “We all know the truth we saw with our own eyes. This should not have happened,” wrote one donor.
Another contributor wrote, “When an unarmed mother can be murdered by a masked mercenary in the streets of the United States, do you feel free?”
Comments came from across the world and political parties: “A real conservative would support your constitutional right to protest peacefully and condemn your murder, despite political views. A real conservative would never celebrate your death. Rest In Peace.”
The Trump administration’s false narrative
Under Secretary Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has claimed that Good used her vehicle as a weapon against ICE officers “in an act of domestic terrorism.”
President Trump has also peddled this narrative, claiming in an interview with The New York Times that Good ran over the officer with her car.
A series of news outlets with forensic teams have concluded that the DHS and Trump variation of events are simply false. Videos from multiple angles show Good turning her car away from the officer, not onto him.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey didn’t mince words in his response to the shooting, “ICE — Get the f*** out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here. Your stated purpose for being in this City is to create some kind of safety, but you are doing exactly the opposite.”
Another ICE shooting on Thursday
On Thursday, an ICE officer shot a married couple in Portland—claiming that they, too, had weaponized their vehicle against the agents. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin further claimed that the couple were involved in the “vicious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.”
Oregon attorney general Dan Rayfield has opened an investigation into the shooting.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson also called for ICE to leave the city and shed doubt on the U.S. government’s version of events: “We know what the federal government says happened here. There was a time when we could take them at their word. That time has long passed.”