Minn. Shooting Echoes Jacksonville Case

by IM Member Steve Spudic

Published in The Florida Times-Union Letters to the Editor, January 25, 2026

Renee Nicole Good was recently shot to death in her own car in Minneapolis. The exact, nanosecond-by-nanosecond sequence of car movement, direction and the location of ICE agent Jonathan Ross may never be fully known. Meanwhile, assertions of murder, self-defense and automobile “weaponization” are being traded.

A very similar situation transpired in Jacksonville. In 2012, Michael Dunn fired seven or eight rounds into a vehicle occupied by 17-year-old Jordan Davis and some of his friends. Davis was killed. Arguments of self-defense and Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law were made, unsuccessfully.

The notable similarity is that Dunn initially fired into the vehicle because he claimed he had seen a gun and was in fear for his life. He continued to fire at that vehicle as it was leaving the scene. The state was able to argue that while it is possible the initial shots could have been defensible, the retaliatory ones as the vehicle was leaving were not.

The situation with Good is very much the same. There is no denying that three shots were fired at Good — one through the lower left front windshield and two through the driver’s window.

Taking the ICE agent’s facts that best support him, he could have interpreted Good’s maneuvering of her car as an attempt on his life. Once he was to the left side of her car, however, and able to fire through the side window, he was clearly not in a spot where any driving of the vehicle would present a danger to him. At that point he was not authorized to fire at her.

The ICE agent should be charged with the appropriate murder or manslaughter charges and brought to trial.

Steve Spudic, Mandarin