Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the U.S. government’s account that the ICE agent was acting in self-defense was untrue, a "garbage narrative." He called on ICE to leave his city, but he and Gov. Tim Walz also urged calm among their residents. “Do not take the bait,” Walz said. “Do not allow them to declare martial law.”

At Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA, where Good (then Macklin) had been a student in 2020, university president Brian Hemphill said her sudden death was "yet another clear example that fear and violence have sadly become commonplace in our nation." He remembered her time at Old Dominion where she studied creative writing and won a prestigious undergraduate poetry prize from the Academy of American Poets. "May Renee's life be a reminder of what unites us: freedom, love, and peace," Hemphill said.

In a similar spirit, Frey urged residents of Minneapolis to rise above the Trump administration's ICE activities and show something “far more beautiful than the kind of division they’re trying to stoke. ...We are going to meet that hate with love,” Frey said. “We are going to meet that despair with hope.”