Shelley Moore Capito Bears Responsibility in the Killing of Renee Nicole Good

 

We are in a slow rolling Kent State Massacre moment. Since Donald Trump took office for the 2nd time there have been sixteen shootings by immigration agents (CBP and ICE) causing 4 deaths and 7 injuries. As Chair of the Republican Policy Committee, the 4th most powerful position in Senate leadership, Shelley Moore Capito bears some responsibility for these shootings and has the power to change the trajectory of future policy regarding ICE and Customs and Border Patrol.

In a press briefing on Thursday, January 8, the day after Minnesotan Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE officer, Senator Capito said, as reported by West Virginia Watch, “First of all, I think it’s tough being an ICE agent, it’s tough carrying out our immigration laws, particularly in communities…where there’s a large immigrant community and broad pushback…Any loss of life is a tragedy. I think we see from the video there’s questions as to how all this happened and why it happened.”

 “I look forward to the investigation that I believe President Trump has called for,” Capito said, “and I think that we’ll find the answers here. So I think that it’s tough to watch. It’s tough to watch.”

It’s even tougher for many of us West Virginians to read her words. Perhaps in another time, from a different politician, Senator Capito’s words would sound measured, balanced, reasonable. Not in 2026. Not from the senior Senator from our state who holds a coveted position in Republican Senate leadership. Not from someone who did not vote against one single Cabinet appointment made by Trump despite the clear inexperience, incompetence, and anti-government stances of sycophants like Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and FBI Director Kash Patel, who control the investigation she “believes” Trump has called for, one which has already cut out Minnesota state law enforcement from participation.

Where does one start? How about with where Senator Capito starts, with her sympathy for the ICE officer who shot a young mother three times as she apparently tried to drive away from him, and then walked away calling her words describing a female dog in a sexual act. It’s a hard job, especially when you’re working in a community where there’s “pushback” against masked officers in unmarked cars making stops and arrests of people based on their skin color and accents or command of the English language. It’s hard when there are citizen observers and protestors documenting your brutality and trying to warn mostly fellow U.S. citizens to stay in their homes for safety from a police force that acts more like an invading army. 

Some people might want to praise Capito for not rushing to judgement as Trump, Vance, Noem and other administration officials have, calling Renee Good a domestic terrorist and claiming she tried to run over the ICE officer who shot her. But Capito, as a leader in her party, has a responsibility to criticize members of her party who make such unsupported and dishonest statements to the public. 

She shows herself to be weak and morally deficient when she puts her trust in an investigation which is already tainted by statements made by the leader of her party and our nation — an investigation that will be carried out by officials she voted to confirm for their positions despite their clear loyalty to the would be dictator over the Constitution which they swore an oath to protect and defend.

Regardless how you’ve voted in the past, please call her office and urge her to firmly call for an open and fair investigation and to push for measures to rein in the brutality that immigration agents are bringing to the homes, streets, businesses, and even schools around the country.

It is time for us to rise up and demand that our elected leaders stand up to this lawless administration. The stakes have been raised and no one can deny that President Trump was not joking when he said he would be “a dictator on day one.” 

In 1970, four students were killed and several wounded by Ohio National Guard troops on the campus of Kent State University while protesting the expanding Vietnam War, which President Nixon had campaigned on ending. Protests erupted around the nation in outrage. Protests are again taking place around the nation, and in West Virginia a few dedicated people have been protesting regularly at the WV State Capitol on Kanawha Boulevard every Saturday from 12-2 pm. Around the state others protest regularly and many responded to national calls to action such as the “No Kings” rallies. Please make your voice heard in any way you can as often as you can.

Paul Epstein is a retired teacher and musician living in Charleston. He serves as treasurer of United West Virginia, a nonprofit group promoting democracy and advocating for marginalized communities: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581167152510