IF THERE IS NO INVESTIGATION, WHY IS THE GOVERNMENT STILL HOLDING RENEE GOOD’S CAR?

Becca Good wants Renee’s Honda Pilot returned. Federal officials say there is no criminal civil-rights investigation — but they still refuse to release the vehicle.

🎥 Video: FOX 9 coverage showing the Honda Pilot Renee Good was driving when ICE officer Jonathan Ross shot and killed her.

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The red Honda Pilot Renee Good was driving when ICE officer Jonathan Ross shot and killed her has remained in federal custody since January 7. Now her widow, Becca Good, is asking a court to force the federal government to return it.

The request is not simply about a vehicle. It is about the government’s control over evidence after a killing it has already declined to treat as the basis for a criminal civil-rights investigation. Becca Good’s attorneys argue that the federal government has no valid reason to keep the SUV because officials have repeatedly stated there is no basis for a criminal investigation into Ross.

That is the contradiction at the center of the motion. If the federal government says there is no criminal civil-rights investigation into Jonathan Ross, then its continued possession of the Honda Pilot becomes harder to justify. The government cannot claim there is no investigative basis for accountability while still holding the physical record of the killing away from the family and from Minnesota investigators.

The filing cites public statements from federal officials, including Vice President JD Vance’s claim that Ross had “absolute immunity for his actions,” and remarks from Department of Justice officials saying there was “currently no basis for a criminal civil-rights investigation.” Becca Good’s attorneys argue that those statements weaken any government claim that the SUV still needs to remain in federal hands.

The Honda Pilot matters because it is part of the evidence. It is the vehicle Renee Good was inside when Ross fired into it. It may contain damage patterns, bullet paths, forensic details, and other information that could matter to the family, to state investigators, and to any future accountability process. Holding that vehicle is not a neutral act when the same federal government is also refusing to pursue a criminal civil-rights investigation into the officer who killed her.

Becca Good’s motion reportedly states that if the vehicle is returned, she intends to provide it to Minnesota state investigators. That detail is central. Minnesota officials have been trying to access evidence gathered by the FBI after three January shootings involving federal immigration officers: Renee Good was killed, Alex Pretti was killed, and Venezuelan national Julio Sosa-Celis was wounded. State investigators have already sued the federal government for access to materials connected to those shootings.

That makes the Honda Pilot part of a larger fight over who gets to examine the record when federal immigration officers use deadly force. If the federal government controls the scene, controls the evidence, declines to investigate its own officer criminally, and blocks state-level access, then the public is left with an accountability process shaped almost entirely by the same system being questioned.

This is why Becca Good’s motion matters beyond the return of property. She is not merely asking for a jointly owned SUV to be released. She is challenging the federal government’s continued control over evidence after it has already disclaimed the kind of investigation that would justify keeping that evidence out of reach. The motion forces a basic question into court: if there is no investigation, why is the government still holding the car?

That question goes directly to the credibility of the accountability process. When an ordinary person is killed, evidence is supposed to help establish what happened. In this case, the evidence remains controlled by the same federal system whose officer fired the fatal shots. The family is still fighting for access. Minnesota investigators are still fighting for access. Federal officials, meanwhile, have already signaled that they do not believe Ross should face a criminal civil-rights investigation.

The danger is not only delay. The danger is evidence control. A stalled or narrowed accountability process becomes even more troubling when the physical record remains in the hands of the institution with the strongest incentive to protect its own officer. That is why the return of the Honda Pilot cannot be treated as a routine property dispute. It is a fight over who gets access to the evidence and who gets to decide what remains hidden.

The federal government’s position leaves Becca Good in an impossible place. Her wife was killed by an ICE officer. The government has not brought charges. Federal officials have publicly downplayed the basis for criminal investigation. Yet the government is still holding the vehicle where Renee spent her final moments. That combination makes the refusal to release the SUV feel less like procedure and more like control over the aftermath.

A real accountability process would not require the victim’s widow to fight for the return of evidence that the government says it has no criminal investigation to support. A credible process would allow independent review, state access, and family transparency. It would not leave the family and Minnesota officials trying to pry the record loose from the same federal structure that has already declined to move against Ross.

The Honda Pilot is not the entire case, but it is a piece of the record. It connects the shooting, the forensic evidence, the family’s loss, and the state’s blocked investigation. If the vehicle is released to Becca Good and then provided to Minnesota investigators, it could allow an outside authority to examine part of what the federal government has kept under its own control.

That is why the question remains so important. If the government is not investigating Ross, then keeping the SUV away from the family and from state investigators demands an explanation. If the vehicle still matters enough to keep, then the public deserves to know why federal officials continue to hold evidence from a killing they have refused to treat as a criminal civil-rights case.

Renee Good’s death cannot be reduced to a closed federal narrative. Her wife is still fighting. Minnesota investigators are still seeking access. The vehicle is still in federal custody. The record is still incomplete.

Becca Good’s motion puts the contradiction where it belongs: in front of a court. The government says there is no criminal civil-rights investigation into Jonathan Ross. The government is still holding the car Renee Good was driving when he killed her. Those two facts cannot sit together without scrutiny.

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Americans Against ICE exists to document the machinery behind these cases before the record gets softened, buried, or moved out of reach.

Renee Good’s killing cannot be allowed to disappear into federal silence. Becca Good should not have to fight the government for access to what remains of her wife’s final moments.

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