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The family of Renee Good is grieving two names now, not one. After losing Renee Nicole Macklin Good to a federal bullet earlier this year, they are watching the fallout from the killing of Alex Pretti and telling the public to stop waiting for official spin and instead trust what they can see for themselves. Their message is blunt, rooted in their own loss, and aimed squarely at the gap between what communities witness on the ground and what federal agencies are willing to explain.
In a moment when videos, eyewitness accounts, and official silence collide, the Goods are trying to turn their private heartbreak into a kind of public instruction manual. They are asking people who watched the raid that ended Pretti’s life, and those who followed Renee’s case, to believe their own eyes before they defer to carefully lawyered statements. That call is landing in a Minneapolis already on edge over immigration raids, use of force, and a federal system that often seems accountable to no one.
The family’s warning and a city already mobilized
The core of the family’s new statement is simple: people on the ground saw what happened to Alex Pretti, and they should not talk themselves out of that reality just because the government is slow-walking details. In their public response, the relatives of Renee Good explicitly urged people to “Trust Their Own Eyes” Regarding Fatal Shooting Of Alex Pretti Jan, tying that plea to what they have lived through since Renee was killed. They describe Renee Nicole Macklin Good as a 37 year old who was more than a case file, a person known as a poet and writer whose death has become a reference point for how federal force lands on real families, and they are now extending that experience to the way they see Pretti’s killing handled.
That warning is not happening in a vacuum. Earlier this year, Community Mobilization around Renee’s death helped turn her name into a rallying cry, with Protests and vigils in Minneapolis and other U.S. cities and a fundraiser for Good’s family that raised $500,000 in just 15 hours, according to one detailed account. That same energy is now spilling into the response to Pretti’s death, with the Goods positioning themselves as both grieving relatives and reluctant experts in what happens when federal agents pull the trigger and then clam up.
From Renee to Pretti, a pattern families say they recognize
To understand why the Goods are speaking so forcefully about Alex Pretti, it helps to look back at how Renee died and how little clarity they say they have received. Earlier this year, Ren, also identified as Renée Nicole Macklin Good, was fatally shot by federal agents during an encounter that has become a touchstone in debates over immigration enforcement and local oversight. Reporting on Where Ren, Good, and the broader wave of outrage notes that her killing, at age 37, is now being discussed in the same breath as the shooting of Pretti and the case of Keith Porter Jr., as communities try to map out a pattern of aggressive tactics and opaque investigations across multiple incidents in Minneapolis and beyond, according to a detailed overview.
When the Goods talk about the “execution” of Alex Pretti, they are drawing a straight line from their own experience to what they see as a repeat performance. In a widely shared statement, Renee Good’s relatives described the events of the weekend in Minneapolis as an execution of Alex Pretti by federal agents and linked that language to a broader climate of fear around ICE activity in the city. They framed the raid that ended Pretti’s life as part of a continuum of aggressive enforcement that has residents tracking unmarked vehicles and filming agents on their phones, a dynamic captured in social media posts that tie Renee Good and Alex Pretti together in the same breath, including one stark Instagram reflection on how both names are now shorthand for what can happen when immigration raids turn violent.
Demanding transparency from a system built on secrecy
The Goods are not just speaking emotionally, they are also calling out what they see as structural problems in how federal force is investigated. In their public response to Pretti’s death, the family of Renee Good said the new killing “adds to the heartbreak” they are already carrying and criticized the lack of clear information about who exactly carried out the raid. They pointed to the way federal agencies can operate in local neighborhoods while keeping basic details, like the identities of the agents involved, out of public view, a frustration echoed in posts that link Renee Good and Alex Pretti as twin examples of families left to grieve in the dark, including one widely shared statement that amplified their words.
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