PHOTO BY CHUCK HOVEN
Friday, January 9, 2026; Candlelight vigil in memory of Renee Good, Market Square Park, W. 25th and Lorain Avenue: Civil Rights Lawyer Subodh Chandra, who formerly served as the Director of the City of Cleveland Law Department, says a New York Times frame by frame analysis of the murder of Renee Good in Minneapolis by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shows “she was simply trying to move her vehicle out of the way.”
PHOTO BY CHUCK HOVEN
Friday, January 9, 2026; Candlelight vigil in memory of Renee Good, Market Square Park, W. 25th and Lorain Avenue: This woman brought a message for Ohio leaders to the protest.
PHOTO BY CHUCK HOVEN
Friday, January 9, 2026; Candlelight vigil in memory of Renee Good, Market Square Park, W. 25th and Lorain Avenue: This protester quotes the late Congressman John Lewis about getting into “Good Trouble.”
PHOTO BY CHUCK HOVEN
Friday, January 9, 2026; Candlelight vigil in memory of Renee Good, Market Square Park, W. 25th and Lorain Avenue: Ohio State Senator Nickie Antonio (District 23) urged protesters to continue to “stand up to fascism.”
by Chuck Hoven
Over 250 Clevelanders packed into Market Square Park on Friday January 9th to demand justice for Renee Nicole Good, the 37-year-old woman shot three times and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota on January 7th.
The candlelight vigil featured speakers, songs, poetry and many creative signs brought by protesters.
The Cuyahoga Democratic Women’s Caucus, Mobilize The Vote Northeast Ohio (NEO), and the Lakewood Democratic Club organized the event.
Organizers issued three statements in advance of the protest.
“We call on Ohio Senators and all elected officials to condemn this unlawful use of lethal force against an American citizen in her own neighborhood.”
“We object to border patrol agents operating in urban settings, outfitted in riot gear, without proper background checks, credentials or training. There is no reason for masked or unidentifiable agents to emerge from unmarked vehicles, akin to the actions of a secret police force, per the Center for American Progress.”
“Furthermore, all Americans should be incensed by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s false accusation, based on no evidence, that this Minneapolis mother of three was a ‘domestic terrorist’ or that the agent was in any danger, based on numerous videos.”
Reverend Lois Annich, the president of AMIS — a group that assists asylum seekers in Cleveland,– introduced speakers and a singer at the candlelight vigil. Reverend Annich also read a poem by United States National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman titled, They say she is no more. Gorman wrote the poem for Renee Nicole Good after the shooting in Minneapolis.
Speaker Subodh Chandra, a civil rights lawyer and former law director of the City of Cleveland, said he has been a legal representative on both sides in law enforcement shootings. He said he had looked at a frame-by-frame analysis of the shooting by the New York Times. He said the video clearly shows that Renee Nicole Good had turned her front wheel away from the ICE agent and was “simply trying to move her vehicle out of the way.” Chandra called the shooting of Good a murder.
Ohio State Senator Nickie Antonio (District 23) expressed concern about the Trump Administration creating a fascist state. She urged Clevelanders at the vigil to “stand up to fascism.”
Kathy Wray Coleman, publisher of the Cleveland Urban News blog and organizer of the Cleveland Women’s March said, “Trump must go.” She invited Clevelanders in the crowd to attend the Cleveland Women’s March on March 8th at 2 p.m. She predicted that by then President Donald Trump will have done something else that is terrible that we can protest.
Sue Dean Dyke of Mobilize The Vote NEO read some of the comments of Becca Good, the wife of Renee Good who was in the car with her when she was killed. Dyke said Becca Good was interviewed on National Public Radio and said that Renee was a “super kind” person, who was “rejecting hate and choosing compassion.”
Following the speakers, those at the vigil marched down Lorain Avenue to W. 28th Street, north on W. 28th and then back to W. 25th and Lorain Avenue. Escorted by Cleveland Police, the group carried a variety of signs and shouted slogans including, “No Hate, No Fear, Immigrants are Welcome Here”, “Hey, Hey, Ho-ho, Kristi Noem (Homeland Security Director) has got to go.”
Signs carried by protesters included: “Remember Renee”, “From Cleveland to Minneapolis, Stop ICE Terror”, “ICE murderers Out of our cities”, ‘It’s Above 32° F, Let ICE Melt”, “Immigrants Make America Great”, “ICE murderers Out of out our cities”, “ICE melts under resistance”, “Trump must go now”, “Justice for Renee Nicole Good”, “Abolish ICE”, “Enraged, Engaged, Resistance is Critical”, “Stop the Repression Abolish ICE Now”, “Abolish ICE 4 Good”, “We Stand with Minneapolis”, “Justice for Renee Nicole Good, Murdered by ICE”, “Veterans Against Fascism”, “Justice for Renee”, “Stop ICING People”, “Defend Our Democracy”, “ICE Out”, “Dissent is Patriotic”, ‘Impeach, Remove Fascist GOP”, “Defend Our Democracy”, “ICE must Go! Whole Trump Fascist Regime Must Go Now!’, “Blood on their hands. R.I.P Renee Good. Murdered by ICE”, “Hate will not make us great”, “Justice for Renee Nicole Good, unarmed, murdered U.S. citizen. Stop ICE cruelty”, “ICE agents are the domestic terrorists”, “Fight Truth Decay, No More Lies or Democracy Dies!”, “Fetch Justice not Deportation” and “Ohio needs leaders who understand the cost of living.”
In addition to this protest, some Cleveland leaders weighed in with comments about the tragedy in Minneapolis. On January 7th, Cleveland City Council President Blaine Griffin, in addition to offering his condolences to the Good family, said he also wanted “to send a message to the people of Minneapolis. We share your grief and anger. Cleveland stands with you.”
Griffin went on to say, “Donald Trump’s decision to arm thousands of unvetted, minimally trained recruits and unleash them on out cities made this kind of violence inevitable. The thuggery ICE regularly displays has no place in America. Anyone with a conscience should be outraged. Only those without a conscience would immediately – and dishonestly – blame the victim as the Trump administration has.”
On January 9th, the Cleveland Urban News blog by Kathy Wray Coleman, published comments by Ohio (District 13) Congresswoman Emilia Sykes criticizing “President Trump and Vice President JD Vance for their support of the ICE agent who murdered Renee Nicole Good.”
In the Cleveland Urban News interview Sykes said, “The video of the shooting death of Renee Nicole Good is devastating to watch and raises questions about the use of deadly force. This event must be treated professionally and with a full investigation and complete transparency.”
In her January 22, 2026 online newsletter Congresswoman Shontel Brown (District 11) said, “I voted no on legislation to fund the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).” Elaborating on the reasons for her no vote, Brown said, “I will not support another cent for agencies that continue to terrorize our communities, commit abuses, and escalate violence.” (unfortunately the bill passed the House on January 22 because all but one Republican voted for it.)
The national media has also weighed in on the Trump administration’s immediate claim of immunity for the ICE agent and its lashing out against Renee Good, calling her a “domestic terrorist.”
On January 9th a Democracy Now story titled “What are you hiding?”, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison says ICE killing of Renee Good must be investigated.”
The Democracy Now online story says, “Minnesota state investigators say the Federal Bureau of Investigation is blocking them from investigating the ICE shooting of Renee Good. The federal government’s claims of immunity for the ICE officer – identified as Iraq War veteran Jonathan Ross – go against precedent, as does its refusal to cooperate with state authorities, says Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who is demanding a local and state-led investigation into Good’s homicide. ‘This is Third Reich stuff,’ adds Ellison, decrying the escalation in aggressive tactics employed by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis and throughout the country. ‘This is an unprecedented attack on American institutions.’”
The violence of ICE agents caught on many videos and reported widely in the news has turned public opinion against the agency. On January 18th, the online publication Daily Kos published an article by Andrew Mangen titled “’Abolish ICE’ hits record-high support.”
The article says, “new data shows that, not only is the public increasingly open to eliminating ICE, but now more people want to burn it down than save it.”
The article by Mangen says, “46% of American support abolishing ICE, while 43% oppose it, according to the latest YouGov/Economist poll. An overwhelming 77% of Democrats support abolition, as does a plurality of independents 47%. Even 14% of Republicans want to melt ICE.”
Mangen’s article points out that just last summer the same polling organization reported that “only 27% of Americans supported abolishing ICE and replacing it with another agency.” The spike in the opposition to ICE occurred after the January 7th shooting of Renee Good. The poll takers found that 69% of Americans have viewed the video of Renee Good being shot and another 22% are familiar with the video but haven’t viewed it. Another poll by Quinnipac University found that “82% of registered voters have seen the video. And in both polls, around 50% say the killing was unjustified, while around 30% say it was justified – a roughly 20 percent gulf in public opinion.”
The article also notes that “just 31% of Americans believe ICE’s actions are making cities safer, according to a new Cable News Network/SQL Server Reporting Service poll. A majority (51%) say ICE is making cities less safe, while 18% say ICE is having little effect either way. Altogether, this suggests that nearly 7 in 10 Americans don’t see a benefit to ICE’s brutality.”
Heather Cox Richardson in her Letters from an American blog on January 21st, 2026 notes the latest ICE caused death in ICE detention Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas. She says that the El Paso County Office of the Medical Examiner ruled the death of 55-year-old Cuban born Geraldo Lunas Campos was a homicide.
Richardson also noted the brutality of ICE and the inhumane conditions in its detention facilities have resulted in numerous deaths over the past year. She said, “Douglas MacMillan of the Washington Post reported that at least 30 people died in detention last year, the highest number in twenty years. Six people, including Lunas Campos and another detainee at Camp East Montana, died in the first two weeks of 2026.”
Editor’s Update: On January 24, Alex Pretti, an Intensive Care Unit nurse who worked for the Veterans Administration hospital in Minneapolis, was killed by masked federal agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Reporting on January 24th, following the murder of Alex Pretti, Heather Cox Richardson in her blog Letters from an American said, “Video from the scene shows Pretti directing traffic on a street out of an area with agents around, then trying to help another person get up after she had been pushed to the ground by the agents. The agents then surround Pretti and shoot pepper spray into his face, then pull him to the ground from behind and hit him as he appears to be trying to keep his head off the ground. An agent appears to take a gun out of Pretti’s waistband during the struggle, then turns and leaves with it. A shot then stops Pretti’s movements, appearing to kill him, before nine more shots ring out, apparently as agents continued to fire into his body.”
Plain Press 
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