AI-generated clip falsely depicts ICE shooting victim mocking Kirk assassination
- Published on January 15, 2026 at 18:52
- 3 min read
- By Cintia NABI CABRAL, AFP France
- Translation and adaptation Gwen Roley , AFP USA
After the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis, some social media posts smeared the Minnesota mother with a video supposedly showing her mocking assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk months earlier. However, the clip is an AI manipulation of a photo where Good and her wife are simply smiling at the camera.
"Observe how these two are deriding Charlie's death. Karma most certainly exists," says a January 10, 2026 post sharing the video on Threads.
The clip appears to show Good with her wife Becca Good pointing finger guns at the camera and laughing. The alleged footage also spread on Facebook, X and TikTok alongside similar claims that it showed the couple mocking Kirk's September 2025 shooting.
The same claims also circulated in French.
Renee Good was shot at point-blank range in Minneapolis on January 7, 2026 as she apparently tried to drive away from ICE officers who were crowding her vehicle.
The Trump administration has insisted the agent acted in self-defense, while visual analysis from outlets including the New York Times based on bystander footage shows Good's car turning away from the officer as he fired the shots.
Experts say political allegiance is heavily guiding people's perception of the incident. AFP previously covered right-wing X users sharing AI-manipulated images that sexualized and dehumanized a woman misidentified online as Good.
The claims that Good mocked Kirk's assassination months before harken back to online vitriol and doxxing campaigns targeting social media users who conservatives accused of criticizing or celebrating the death of the slain right-wing activist.
Kirk, seen as a spokesman for a younger generation of Republicans, was shot dead in the middle of a Utah university event in an assassination that further deepened fraught political divisions in the United States.
But the supposed video of Good and her wife is not real. It was created using artificial intelligence.
AFP's examination of the clip found that the figure meant to represent Becca Good appears to have two thumbs. Inaccurately rendered hands are characteristic of AI manipulation.
Hive Moderation's AI-detection tool determined that a still from the video was "likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content."
Similarly, the Deepfake Total detector found that the video's audio was almost certainly AI-generated.
Reverse image searches revealed that the video was generated using a photo of the couple published multiple times in news coverage of the Renee Good's death. AFP was not able to verify the image's origin, but the New York Post credited it to Becca Good's Instagram, which is private.
AFP could not verify what commentary, if any, Renee Good had made on Kirk or his assassination.
AFP has debunked other misinformation following the shooting in Minneapolis here, here and here.
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