The federal agent who shot and killed a driver in Minneapolis is an Iraq War veteran who served nearly two decades with the Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to records obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.
Jonathan Ross, who shot and killed Renee Good on Wednesday, has been a deportation officer with ICE since 2015, records show. He was seriously injured last summer when he was dragged by a fleeing suspect’s vehicle and shot with a stun gun.
Federal officials have not named the officer who shot Good, a 37-year-old mother who was shot while trying to flee from federal agents. But Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem said the agent who shot Good was dragged by a vehicle last June, and a department spokesman confirmed Noem was referring to Bloomington, Minn., where documents identified the wounded officer as Ross.
Noem and other Trump administration officials have defended the agent as an experienced law enforcement professional who followed his training and shot Good after he believed she was trying to run him or other agents over with her vehicle. The video has raised questions about whether the shooting was in self-defense, and the FBI is investigating the deadly use of force. Some protesters are calling for Ross to face criminal charges, and Minnesota authorities also want to investigate.
Attempts to reach Ross, 43, at the phone numbers and email addresses associated with him were not immediately successful.
Here are some things to know about it:
Experienced military and law enforcement officer
In courtroom testimony last month, Ross said he deployed to Iraq from 2004 to 2005 with the Indiana National Guard. Ross said he served as a machine gunner in a weapons truck as part of a combat patrol team.
He said he returned from Iraq in 2005, went to college and joined the Border Patrol in 2007 near El Paso, Texas. He worked there until 2015, serving as a field intelligence agent gathering and analyzing information on cartels and drug and people smuggling.
Ross said he has served as a deportation officer based in Minnesota since joining ICE in 2015. He is assigned to fugitive operations, seeking to arrest “higher-value targets” in ICE’s region that includes Minneapolis, he testified last month. He said he was also a team leader with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.
“So I develop the targets, create a target package, surveillance and then develop a plan to execute the arrest warrant,” he said.
Ross said he was also a firearms instructor, active shooter instructor, field intelligence officer and SWAT team member. He said he attended the Border Patrol academy in New Mexico, where he learned to speak Spanish.
Seriously injured last June
Ross was the leader of a team of agents who went to arrest a man who was in the US illegally in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington on June 17. Agents gathered outside the home of the man, Roberto Munoz-Guatemala, who left in his car, according to court records.
FBI agents activated sirens and emergency lights, telling him to stop, but he did not. Ross pulled his vehicle diagonally in front of Munoz-Guatemala to force him to stop.
Ross and an FBI agent identified themselves as police and pointed their guns at Munoz-Guatemala, who raised his hands. Ross then approached Munoz-Guatemala’s vehicle and ordered him to put it in park.
Ross told the driver to roll the window all the way down and warned him he would smash it if he didn’t. Ross used a device known as a “spring window punch” to break the rear driver’s side window and reached inside the car to unlock the driver’s door.
Munoz-Guatemela drove off while Ross’ arm was caught in the vehicle and accelerated, dragging Ross down the street. Ross fired his Taser, striking Munoz-Guatemala in the head, face and shoulder.
Munoz-Guatemela was not incapacitated by the Taser, prosecutors said, and continued to drive, taking Ross the length of a football field in 12 seconds. Ross was forced out of the vehicle after Munoz-Guatemala ran over a curb a second time and back onto the street.
Ross’ right arm was bleeding, and an FBI agent applied a tourniquet. He ended up getting dozens of stitches at a hospital. Prosecutors said he “suffered multiple large cuts and abrasions to his knee, elbow and face.”
“It was a pretty excruciating pain,” Ross confessed.
Munoz-Guatemela was bleeding from his injuries and had a woman call 911, saying he had been assaulted and did not know if the person trying to stop him was an officer. He was arrested and charged with assault on a federal officer with a dangerous or deadly weapon.
A jury found Munoz-Guatemala guilty in a trial last month, finding that “he should have reasonably known that Jonathan Ross was a law enforcement officer and not a private citizen trying to assault him.”
Federal officials are defending the agent without identifying him
Vice President JD Vance on Thursday praised the agent’s service to the country, without naming him, saying the ICE officer “deserves a debt of gratitude.”
“This is a guy who actually did a very, very important job for the United States of America,” Vance said. “He was assaulted. He was attacked. He was hurt because of it.”
DHS Assistant Tricia McLaughlin declined to confirm the agent’s identity Thursday, saying doing so would be dangerous to his and his family’s safety. But she noted that he was selected for ICE’s Special Response Team, which includes a 30-hour trial and additional training in specialized skills such as breaching techniques, perimeter control, hostage rescue and firearms.
“He acted on his training,” she said. “This officer is a longtime ICE officer who has served his country his entire life.”