By Casey Tolan, Rob Kuznia, Isabelle Chapman, CNN
(CNN) — The woman killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis last week served on the board of her son’s school, which linked to documents encouraging parents to monitor ICE and directing them to training.
The documents shed new light on Renee Good’s connection to efforts to monitor and potentially disrupt ICE operations – an association that federal officials have made clear is at the center of their review into the deadly incident that occurred as she partially blocked ICE agents in the street with her SUV.
But four legal experts who reviewed the documents for CNN said they largely describe nonviolent civil disobedience tactics practiced at American protests for generations – far from the sinister depiction of extremism and domestic terrorism portrayed by Trump administration officials like Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Vice President JD Vance.
“There’s nothing in there that suggests attacking ICE agents or engaging in any other form of physical harm or property damage,” said Timothy Zick, a professor at William and Mary Law School who wrote a book on protest law. “This is authoritarianism 101 where you blame the dissenters and the activists for causing their own death.”
Three top federal prosecutors in Minneapolis resigned Tuesday over pressure from the Trump administration to focus their probe on the actions of Good and those around her, according to a person briefed on the matter.
One of the documents linked by the school appears to be a message to parents dated December 16 that begins, “Thank you to families who have been on ICE watch, helping to protect their neighbors.”
The note links to a separate training document with guides on getting whistles to alert neighbors to ICE raids and contact information for a school parent offering “noncooperation training.”
“ICE are untrained bullies looking for easy targets. Neighbors showing up have saved lives,” that training document reads.
Another guide linked to in the training document stresses nonviolent responses to ICE agents, while also encouraging a refusal to “comply with demands, requests, and orders.” It suggests “creative tactics,” noting that “Crowds, props, traffic, and noise can make detentions difficult, sometimes ICE vehicles can’t move (‘whoops!’).” It does not specifically suggest blocking operations with a vehicle.
The December 16 note, titled “School Report,” was an item on the school board’s meeting on that date, an agenda shows – a meeting that Good attended as one of three parents on the board of the Southside Family Charter School.
Records don’t indicate that the board voted on the message. It’s unclear whether it was more widely shared with families at Southside, a small charter school with a long history of progressive activism. Neither the school nor other board members who served with Good responded to messages from CNN.
Two sources familiar with the school said the “School Report” message appeared similar to past newsletters shared with parents, but neither was on the email list at the time to confirm if it was sent out.
The “School Report” message was uploaded to the school’s public Google Drive about two weeks into the federal operation ramping up immigration enforcement actions in the Minneapolis area, which federal officials had launched to target the region’s Somali community.
Good was partially blocking a street with her SUV on Wednesday as ICE agents operated in the area. An ICE officer who was filming Good shot her after she started to accelerate her SUV. Videos of the deadly interaction show that Good was Read more