The National Police Accountability Project applauds the principled resignations of federal prosecutors who stepped down from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in response to how the Department has handled the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis woman killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent. At least ten DOJ prosecutors — including career prosecutors in the U.S. The Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota and four senior lawyers in the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division — have left their positions amid internal disagreement with leadership decisions surrounding the investigation.
“These experienced career prosecutors acted with integrity in the face of troubling decisions at the highest levels of the Justice Department,” said Lauren Bonds, a civil rights attorney and Executive Director at NPAP. “Their resignations are a reminder that even within the Department of Justice — an institution entrusted with enforcing our laws that has been deeply compromised by its current leadership — there are people willing to stand up when justice and accountability are compromised.”
The resignations came after DOJ leadership excluded the Civil Rights Division — the section historically responsible for investigating use-of-force and excessive force cases — from a substantive role in the review of Good’s death. Instead, leadership reportedly directed resources toward examining other aspects of the incident, including a controversial suggestion to investigate the victim’s widow, family, and community activist connections.
Good, a Midwest native and mother of three, was shot and killed on January 7, 2026, by an ICE agent during an enforcement operation in Minneapolis that has since sparked national protests, widespread public scrutiny, and calls for transparency and accountability.
“I am sure that these departures were not made lightly,” Bonds continued. “Career prosecutors rarely pursue excessive force charges against officers. It speaks volumes about the egregiousness of Jonathan Ross’s actions that the refusal to investigate prompted mass departures.
At the same time, NPAP cautions that these high-profile departures underscore a deeper accountability crisis within federal law enforcement and prosecutorial systems.
- The Trump administration has publicly stated that the Department sees no basis for a civil rights investigation into Good’s killing — a sharp contrast to long-established practice in similar cases under prior administrations.
- Prosecutors and civil liberties advocates have expressed concern about the sidelining of civil rights expertise in cases involving deadly force, a trend that could weaken constitutional protections and undermine public trust.
“While we honor the courage of the prosecutors who resigned, these departures make one thing painfully clear: the public cannot rely on the Department of Justice alone to deliver accountability when federal agents kill civilians,” Bonds added. “When prosecutorial institutions are weakened by political interference, the burden of justice falls even more heavily on the private civil rights bar and on communities willing to fight back through the courts.”
“For decades, it has been civil rights attorneys — not federal prosecutors — who have forced transparency, uncovered patterns of abuse, and secured accountability through civil litigation when government actors refused to act,” Bonds continued. “That is why investing in independent legal mechanisms, robust civil enforcement, and the ability of harmed people to access skilled counsel is not optional — it is essential.”
NPAP emphasized that meaningful accountability requires shifting power back into the hands of people harmed by law enforcement, rather than relying on discretionary and politically vulnerable prosecutorial systems.
NPAP therefore calls for:
- Congressional oversight to examine DOJ decision-making in federal use-of-force cases, while recognizing that oversight alone cannot substitute for independent civil enforcement;
- Independent civil rights investigations and litigation pathways that allow families and communities to pursue justice even when prosecutors decline to act; and
- Policies that strengthen and protect the role of the civil rights bar, including access to evidence, transparency requirements, and safeguards against federal agencies shielding misconduct from civil review.
“When prosecutors walk away, civil rights lawyers step in,” Bonds said. “The path to accountability runs through the courts, through civil litigation, and through people who refuse to accept silence as justice.”