1. United States
2. Iowa
3. Letter

I am writing to demand accountability for the killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent and to ask why this incident is being treated as anything other than a serious failure of judgment and training. Video evidence shows the agent placing himself directly in front of a running vehicle and then firing into it. Law enforcement training explicitly warns against standing in the path of a vehicle because it predictably escalates encounters into lethal force. A trained federal agent choosing to do so is not acting heroically or defensively—it is reckless. Ms. Good was unarmed and attempting to leave. The agent created the danger and then responded to that danger by killing her. That is a failure of basic decision-making, not an unavoidable tragedy. I am also disturbed by public comments from Vice President Vance and Secretary Noem implying that the agent’s actions should be excused or explained by PTSD. If the agent is fit for duty, PTSD is not a defense for killing a civilian. If he is not fit for duty, then he should not have been deployed in the first place. Using PTSD as a post-hoc justification is cowardly, stigmatizing to veterans and law enforcement officers who manage trauma responsibly, and an attempt to shift blame away from an indefensible choice. The Department of Justice has now announced it will not pursue a civil rights investigation. That decision is unacceptable. When a federal agent’s own actions directly lead to a civilian’s death, declining even to investigate signals that federal officers are beyond accountability. That undermines public trust entirely. I want to know: Why an ICE agent was allowed to act in a way that contradicts standard safety training. Why DOJ believes this conduct does not merit a civil rights investigation. What oversight Congress will exercise to ensure this does not happen again. This was avoidable. A woman is dead because of a reckless decision, and the response so far has been excuses instead of accountability. Congress should not accept that outcome. I expect a clear response.