Five years after Floyd, Good shooting videos prove harder to interpret, experts say

Video of the fatal shooting of Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis on Jan. 7 has proven inconclusive on whether Good’s vehicle struck Ross before he opened fire, according to independent analyses by the Associated Press, The Washington Post, and The New York Times — and media ethics scholars say that ambiguity, combined with the spread of AI-generated fake images and a more fragmented public, has allowed sharply divergent narratives to take hold where the 2020 footage of George Floyd’s death left little room for dispute.

The Trump administration moved quickly after the shooting to frame it in terms favorable to the officer, while Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey dismissed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s characterization of Good as a domestic terrorist and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer accused the administration of lying.

Media experts say the contrast between the two Minneapolis videos — taken five years apart — reflects how evolving technology, widening distrust of imagery, and deliberate narrative management have transformed how video evidence functions in politically charged law enforcement deaths.

What the videos show — and don’t

The AP reported that it was unclear whether Good’s car made contact with Ross. The Washington Post said videos it examined, including one that President Donald Trump shared on Truth Social, “do not clearly show whether the agent is struck or how close the front of the vehicle comes to striking him.” The New York Times reported that when two clips are synchronized, “we can see the agent is not being run over.”

A video released Friday by Minnesota outlet Alpha News, showing the incident from Ross’s perspective, also left many questions unresolved, the AP reported.

Duy Linh Tu, a documentarian and professor at the Columbia University journalism school, said the footage establishes basic facts but cannot resolve questions of intent.

“These ICE videos do present irrefutable facts — a woman drove her car and then she was shot dead by an ICE agent,” Tu said. “What the videos can’t show is the intent of the woman or the officer. And that’s the tricky part.”

Competing official narratives

Good was demonstrating against ICE immigration enforcement at the time of the shooting, according to the AP. Noem labeled her a domestic terrorist, a characterization Frey dismissed with an expletive. Trump and Vice President JD Vance said the shooting was justified because Good was attempting to run Ross down.

Vance wrote online: “Many of you have been told this law enforcement officer wasn’t hit by a car, wasn’t being harassed and murdered an innocent woman. The reality is that his life was endangered and he fired in self-defense.”

Schumer responded by writing that “how could anyone on the planet watch this video and conclude what JD Vance says?” He wrote that the administration “is lying to you.”

White House border czar Tom Homan was initially cautious the night of the shooting when CBS News anchor Tony Dokoupil showed him the most widely distributed bystander video, saying it would be unprofessional to prejudge before an investigation. Later that evening, Homan issued a statement calling the shooting “another example of the results of the hateful rhetoric and violent attacks” against ICE and Border Patrol officers.

Kelly McBride, a media ethics expert at the Poynter Institute, said the media has generally done careful work on the evidence, but that the administration has also been effective in spreading its interpretation.

“The people who are writing the cultural narrative of the Good shooting took notes from the Floyd killing and are managing this narrative differently,” McBride said.

Why the Floyd parallel falls short

George Floyd died on May 25, 2020, after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes as Floyd said he couldn’t breathe. Chauvin was convicted of murder. Legal scholar Angela Onwuachi-Willig, in a study published in the Houston Law Review, wrote that the Floyd footage “caused many individuals to experience an epiphany about racism, specifically cultural racism, in the United States.”

No comparable clarity has emerged from the videos of Good’s death. More camera angles are available in the Good case than existed for Floyd, but Tu said additional angles have not resolved the central questions.

“I don’t know if that adds clarity or more fog to this case,” Tu said. “I think that people will see what they want to see. Or, rather, they’ll pick the angle that aligns with what they already believe.”

AI fakes compound the uncertainty

Before Ross was identified, BBC Verify reported that false images spread online speculating about the masked agent’s appearance, and that fake video of a Minneapolis demonstration circulated widely.

Francesca Dillman Carpentier, a journalism professor at the University of North Carolina who studies media’s impact on audiences, said the spread of AI-generated fakes is training the public to distrust what it sees.

“Now you can’t believe what you’re seeing,” Carpentier said. “You don’t know if what you’re seeing is the real video or if it has been doctored. I don’t think AI is being a friend in this case at all.”

“We are in a different time,” Carpentier said.