The news that a woman in Minneapolis had been gunned down by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, and that her parents lived in Valley Falls, Kansas, reached Bill Klenklen on Wednesday night when his daughter called.

Then, about 8:30 a.m. Thursday, his neighbor Tim Ganger walked across the street.

“The only thing I know is he came over to my house, about 8:30, to tell me to keep an eye on the house,” Klenken said. “He was leaving for Minneapolis ... He said it was his daughter who was killed.”

Ganger and his wife Donna are the parents of Renee Nicole Good, the 37-year-old former Kansas City resident shot and killed Wednesday by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis.

The action, which occurred on a residential street during a targeted ICE operation, sparked shock and outrage and left her 6-year-old son an orphan.

ICE shooting hits home in Kansas

It was not until Wednesday night, from local news broadcasts, that residents in Valley Falls discovered that the shooting in Minneapolis had come to touch their community. Television news crews and reporters, including from The Washington Post and The New York Times, began arriving on Wednesday evening and on a rain-soaked Thursday.

Valley Falls is a 170-year-old town in Jefferson County, some 30 miles northwest of Topeka. It is home to about 1,000 people, where the Gangers' neat home, with its brick porch and white clapboard, stands on a redbrick street under a 70-foot-tall oak tree. Two red rocking chairs sit on their porch, perches for two black cats.

The Gangers, who neighbors estimated came to live in town about five years ago, were either not home or did not answer their door on Thursday. A woman parked outside the family home said she wanted to make no comment. Until given the news, one neighbor, directly across the street from the Gangers, was unaware and shocked to learn that his neighbor’s daughter was the individual killed in Minneapolis.

By Thursday people knew. The Rev. Mike Kirby, pastor of the Valley Falls Christian Church, where the Gangers attend, said he received a call on Wednesday evening. He said he was able to speak to the couple but chose not to relate what they shared.

“Right now, we’re just trying to love and protect them,” Kirby said. Asked whether he would refer to shooting at his upcoming Sunday sermon, he said, “I don’t think that I’ll address this specifically. My message this week is about not letting our hearts be troubled, and Jesus is the way. It’s what was already scheduled, and I think it’s pretty appropriate.”

He reflected on the tragic national news coming to Valley Falls.

“We live in a broken world,” he said. “You know, that’s why Jesus came. We live in a broken world. There are broken people. Jesus came and he died for that. That’s what I preach every week, just that He’s the comfort that we need in these times. It’s a turbulent world. It comes to big cities and it comes to small towns and everybody needs the love of Christ.”

The shooting of Renee Nicole Good

Neighbors Mark and Patricia Stone, who live across from the Gangers, said that although they did not know the couple well, they were nonetheless outraged at the Minneapolis shooting. Long-haul truckers, they have lived in Valley Falls for 40 years. Patricia Stone, disabled, spoke from her hospital bed in their living room.

“I think about Minneapolis and it sickens me,” she said, quickly turning her comments political. “We are going to hell in a handbasket, and that president is completely out of control. I’m saying it like it is.”

Mark Stone said, “When we heard last night that the parents lived here in Valley Falls, we didn’t know her (their neighbor) as her last name, Good. We didn’t even know who her parents were.”

Now, he said, “It’s in our backyard.”

“It’s ridiculous,” Patricia said, and then referred to the actions by ICE agents. “They’re pushing their boundaries. They’re cowards that hide behind masks. If they’re so almighty godly and doing justice, then why are they wearing masks? I would vote for the mayor of Minneapolis in a New York minute for what he said. I don’t care if he cussed. He had every right to.”

She spoke of Good, backing up her vehicle and driving forward before being shot in the seat of her car.

“Even if she did take off in the car, you don’t kill somebody,” she said. “You don’t shoot them through the head because they tried to get away.”

The Stones had yet to give thought to what they might say when they see their neighbors again.

“Give them their space right now,” Mark said. “They’re going to need it. I mean I would imagine they’re on the way to Minnesota.”

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(The Kansas City Star’s Monty Davis contributed to this story.)

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