Container ship in Port of Tacoma raises questions about rumored Renee Good tribute

In January 2026, after U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a photo (archived) circulated online claiming to show a tribute to the deceased wife and mother in Tacoma, Washington. 

The photo appeared to show a container ship in Tacoma’s port loaded with red and green containers spelling “renee.” One Reddit user who shared a photo of the containers wrote that it was “for Renee Good.”

Look what pulled into Tacoma
byu/matt23-8 inTacoma

This and other photos circulated on Facebook (archived) and Threads (archived, archived). Snopes readers wrote in, asking if the photos were real and showed a tribute to Good. 

The photos of the containers spelling “renee” appeared to be genuine, meaning not created using artificial intelligence (AI), according to online AI-detector tools (Such detectors are not always fully reliable.) The Tacoma-based newspaper the News Tribune also reported (archived) on the containers and led the report with a photo taken by one of its photojournalists.

However, as of this writing, it was unclear who arranged the containers to spell “renee” and whether they were intended as a tribute to Good. In response to a Facebook post (archived) by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in Tacoma, a user named Renee Carmona claimed (archived) the containers were arranged in Long Beach as a birthday celebration for her. She was likely referring to Long Beach, California (more on that later).

We reached out to Carmona for proof of her claim. We also contacted the ILWU and its chapters in Oakland and Los Angeles, the cities where the ship reportedly docked before Tacoma, to ask if they knew who loaded the containers to spell “renee” and whether they were meant as a tribute to Good. We await responses to our questions.

In the meantime, we leave this claim unrated.

Political message or birthday surprise?

A photojournalist for the News Tribune captured a photo of the ship with the containers spelling “renee” on Jan. 26, 2026, which was also when other images circulated online.

Other social media users posted images (archived, archived) of the containers from different angles on the same date. These photos also passed scrutiny by online AI detectors, meaning they appeared to be authentic.

The News Tribune did not establish a reason for the container arrangement but did refer to a Facebook post by the ILWU in Tacoma. The union represents longshoremen, also known as dockworkers, who load and unload cargo ships at ports. 

According to comments on that post, the containers could have been a tribute to a different “renee” than the woman shot and killed in Minneapolis. 

One user named Renee Carmona left several comments on the ILWU post, writing in one, “This was done in Long Beach for my birthday! Not for Renee Good.” In another comment (archived), Carmona wrote:

Well! Heard the name is getting taken down! Because of political reasons… it wasn’t intended to be political. People are so serious. They don’t know how to have fun anymore. My boyfriend did it for my bday… thanks guys….

Carmona’s Facebook profile did not reveal whether her birthday was in January but did show she was based in Torrance, California, which is near Long Beach. 

She reportedly repeated similar comments to the News Tribune, saying her boyfriend arranged the containers on the ship to spell her name on Jan. 17, when the boat was in the Los Angeles area.

Melanie Stambaugh Babst, director of communications for The Northwest Seaport Alliance, which manages Tacoma harbor, said the ship carrying the “renee” containers was the Ever Macro, which arrived in Tacoma “already loaded” on Jan. 25, 2026. Babst could not confirm why the ship’s containers were arranged that way. 

According to maritime tracking site Econdb.com, the Ever Macro is owned by Evergreen Maritime Group and docked in the Los Angeles area, where Long Beach is located, on Jan. 14, 2026.

The Ever Macro then docked in Oakland, California, on Jan. 20, before making its way to Tacoma where it arrived on Jan. 25, the day before photos of the “renee” containers started circulating.

As of this writing, the Ever Macro had left Tacoma en route to Xiamen, China, where it was due to arrive on Feb. 7. It was unclear whether the containers on the ship still spelled “renee” or were rearranged. 

According to a News Tribune report, a longshoreman in Tacoma said management asked workers there to rearrange the containers on Jan. 26 after they attracted attention online.