WILMINGTON — “Forward together. Not one step back,” came the call and response from protestors Saturday afternoon. Hundreds of people gathered locally downtown as part of a nationwide movement to protest the death of Renee Nicole Good, fatally shot by an ICE agent on Wednesday, Jan. 7.
Roughly 1,000 events took place in cities across the nation on Saturday and Sunday, with Wilmington’s event happening on the steps of Thalian Hall. The Wilmington Police Department confirmed a few hundred protestors were present, though event organizers have claimed nearly 1,000 people were present.
READ MORE: The second coming of ‘No Kings’: Organizers say thousands took to Wilmington streets
Titled “ICE Out for Good,” the protest was organized by Women Organizing for Wilmington, Indivisible Wilmington, Indivisible Actions Southeast NC, New Hanover for All and an immigration nonprofit, Siembra. Nine speakers turned out, including Lynn Shoemaker (founder of WoW), Wilmington City Council member Salette Andrews, Pastor Warren Jacob, John Herrmann (Indivisible Actions Southeast NC), Amanda Boomershine and Mari McKenzie (Siembra), activist Lily Nicole, comedian Cliff Cash, and Jim Fortunato (Indivisible Wilmington).
“As we face threats from ICE, our goal is to make North Carolina safe for everyone,” McKenzie said to the crowd, “immigrants or not, so we can all safely get to school, go to work, worship, and live a life of dignity.”
Her colleague, also a UNCW Spanish professor, Boomershine addressed the crowd with resources, including a hotline through Siembra, which can be used if ICE is suspected in a community or neighborhood, and an interactive map of ICE activity in North Carolina. The map is compiled via crowdsourcing, though any sightings must be verified by video or testimonial evidence reviewed by attorneys and volunteer networks. Siembra has been active for almost a decade, and is dedicated to immigration and worker rights, tackling issues of ICE detention and wage theft.
According to the map, since February 2025, there have been four detention incidents in New Hanover County. The first, on Feb. 22, was reported on N. MacMillan Avenue, where a man was detained leaving his apartment around 8 a.m., and held in a detention center until his deportation in August 2025.
Two arrests were reported on Nov. 20, 2025 — the first of which was noted to be on S. Sixth Avenue and the second at Oleander Drive, though the report notes the detainee was starting his first day of work as an electrician at Cherry Point, the Marine Base Air Station in Havelock.
The map shows the fourth incident was reported at the New Hanover County Jail on Dec. 12, with two immigrants posting a bond for a loved one; they were approached in the parking lot and arrested soon after.
The New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office could not confirm activity at the detention center or otherwise and said that would be something ICE would verify. An email was sent to ICE without response received by press.
Siembra will also be hosting a vigil for Good at the Alton Lennon Federal Building at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 14; one was held locally last Thursday, Jan. 8, the day after Good was killed.
A 37-year-old mother of three, Good was shot in the face three times by ICE agent Jonathan Ross while driving her vehicle as officers conducted an “enforcement operation.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has posted a video since the event and claims the shooting was self defense. Other videos from bystanders have also been published, with Good’s wife, Rebecca, and the mayor of Minneapolis condemning the shooting as an act of violence; Gov. Tim Walz declared Jan. 9 a “Day of Unity” in Good’s honor.
Videos show Good in the driver’s seat of a Honda SUV as one ICE agent approaches her from the driver’s side window, circling her vehicle. A dog can be seen in the backseat of the car. Good responds to the agent saying: “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.”
Protestors carried signs of her last words Saturday nationwide.
Good’s wife, Rebecca, can be seen in the videos walking on the street filming, while the ICE officer is cataloguing the license and vehicle information. Rebecca speaks to the agent: “You want to come at us? You want to come at us? I say, ‘Go and get yourself some lunch, big boy.”
A second officer approaches Good from the driver’s side, yelling for her to get out of the car, followed by an expletive. The agent filming the interaction stands in front of her vehicle as Good reverses, before driving forward and turning her wheel right, away from the ICE agent. A few shouts are heard as three gunshots ring out, before the video cuts out; then a man’s voice can be heard stating “f**king bitch.”
Good’s wife spoke out after the incident, saying Renee was a kind person who “had sparkles coming out of her pores” and adding of their social justice advocacy: “We had whistles. They had guns.”
Good’s case is currently being handled by the FBI, who has limited state and local agencies’ interference. Though reports are surfacing Monday that the state is suing the federal government to stop deployment of immigration agents as protests continue in Minneapolis.
The Trump administration backs Department of Homeland Security’s claims the ICE agent acted in self-defense, due to Good reversing her vehicle with agents at her car door. The DHS added an ICE agent was injured, though outlets like the NY Times and the BBC were unable to confirm or deny the injury. Secretary Kristi Noem called the incident an act of domestic terrorism.
Protesters across the country and in Wilmington are calling for accountability and transparency in investigating the shooting.
“Let this gathering be a moral witness to the truth that government power must never be unrestrained,” council woman Andrews said at the podium at Saturday’s protest. “Let it be a call for community accountability, for respect for human life, and for humane immigration policy. And let it be a reminder that when one of us is harmed, we all feel that pain.”
Other speakers touched on the concept of belonging, and taking direct action by reaching out to representatives and amplifying progressive and marginalized voices.
“Renee Good was one of us,” Shoemaker told the crowd. “Her execution is an alarm sounding and we must all wake up.”
Aside from a few drive-by naysayers, the local protest garnered no issues or concerns, according to the Wilmington Police Department.
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