Six prosecutors quit after push to investigate ICE shooting victim's
widow
The New York Times
January 13, 2026

Six federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned Tuesday over the Justice Department's push to investigate the widow of a woman killed by an
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent and the department's
reluctance to investigate the shooter, according to people with
knowledge of their decision.

Joseph H. Thompson, who was second in command at the U.S. attorney's
office and oversaw a sprawling fraud investigation that has roiled
Minnesota's political landscape, was among those who quit Tuesday,
according to three people with knowledge of the decision.

Thompson's resignation came after senior Justice Department officials
pressed for a criminal investigation into the actions of the widow of
Renee Nicole Good, the Minneapolis woman killed by an ICE agent on
Wednesday.

Thompson, 47, a career prosecutor, objected to that approach as well as
to the Justice Department's refusal to include state officials in
investigating whether the shooting itself was lawful, the people
familiar with his decision said.

The other senior career prosecutors who resigned include Harry Jacobs,
Melinda Williams and Thomas Calhoun-Lopez. Jacobs had been Thompson's
deputy overseeing the fraud investigation, which began in 2022.
Calhoun-Lopez was the chief of the violent and major crimes unit.

Thompson, Jacobs, Williams and Calhoun-Lopez declined to discuss the
reasons they resigned. The Justice Department did not immediately
respond to a request for comment.

The fraud cases, which involve schemes to defraud safety net programs
managed by state agencies, were the chief reason the Trump
administration launched an immigration crackdown in the state. The vast majority of defendants charged in the cases are of Somali origin.

Tuesday's resignations followed tumultuous days at the U.S. attorney's
office in Minnesota as prosecutors struggled to manage the outrage over
Good's killing, which set off angry protests in Minnesota and across the nation.

After Good was shot, the Justice Department decided to forgo a civil
rights investigation that would establish whether the ICE officer's use
of deadly force was justified. That decision led several career
prosecutors at the department's civil rights division in Washington to
resign in protest, MS Now reported Monday.

Instead, the Justice Department launched an investigation to examine
ties between Good and her wife, Becca, and several groups that have been monitoring and protesting the conduct of immigration agents in recent
weeks. Shortly after Wednesday's fatal shooting, Homeland Security
Secretary Kristi Noem referred to Good as a "domestic terrorist."

Becca Good said in a statement last week that she and her wife had
"stopped to support our neighbors" when they got into a tense
confrontation with ICE agents that led to the shooting. "We had
whistles," Becca Good wrote. "They had guns."

Thompson strenuously objected to the decision not to investigate the
shooting as a civil rights matter and was outraged by the demand to
launch a criminal investigation into Becca Good, according to the people familiar with the developments, who were not authorized to discuss them publicly.

Thompson had originally set out to investigate the shooting in
partnership with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, a state
agency that reviews police shootings. Senior Justice Department
officials overruled the decision to cooperate with the state agency.

Drew Evans, the superintendent of the bureau, called Thompson's
departure a major setback for the effort to root out fraud in the state
and for public safety.

"We're losing a true public servant," Evans said. "We really need
professional prosecutors."

"The absence of a credible and comprehensive investigation into Ms.
Good's killing stands to undermine trust in our public safety agencies,"
Evans added.

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