During a controversial interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem reiterated her claim that Renee Good, the woman who was fatally shot by an immigration agent in Minneapolis last Wednesday, was involved in “domestic terrorism” because she “armed her vehicle to commit an act of violence against a law enforcement officer and law enforcement.” Noem added that Jonathan Ross, the ICE officer who killed Good, “acted according to his training and defended his life and his colleagues” when he fired at the Honda Pilot he was driving.
Judging by viewer videos of the incident, these claims are dubious. This evidence does not definitively resolve the question of whether the shooting was legally justified. But it suggests that Good, who was monitoring ICE activities in Minneapolis and drew attention for blocking a lane of traffic on Portland Avenue, was trying to leave the scene rather than try to run Ross over. It also indicates that Ross’ tactics deviated from Justice Department guidelines and police training for traffic stops.
“Those officers had been out on an enforcement action,” Noem told Tapper. “One vehicle got stuck [in the snow]. They came to help remove that vehicle. Then this individual [Good] started blocking traffic for minutes and minutes…[She] he was yelling at them and obstructing a federal law enforcement investigation. That’s what you need to focus on, Jake…They broke the law by hindering and obstructing a law enforcement operation.”
On Friday, Vice President JD Vance posted video of the encounter on Ross’ cellphone, saying he confirmed his “life was in danger and he fired in self-defense.” But that video contradicts Noem’s account in some ways and raises questions about Ross’ behavior before the shooting.
Although Noem said Good “blocked the road for a long time,” Ross’ footage and the other videos show cars passing Good using the lane that was still open. And while Noem said Good was “yelling” at ICE officers, she smiles in Ross’ video and doesn’t raise her voice. “Okay man,” she says calmly to Ross as he walks up to her car, picking up his cell phone. “I’m not mad at you.” Ross moves to the back of the car, recording the license plate.
“It’s okay,” says Good’s wife, who got out of the car and is recording the scene with her cell phone camera. “We don’t change our plates every morning, just so you know. It’ll be the same plate when you come talk to us later. That’s good.”
Although Good’s wife also seems calm, her attitude is more confrontational. – Do you want to come to us? she says. “I say get some lunch, kid.” At this point, another ICE agent tells Good to “get the hell out of the car.” Other videos show the officer grabbing the front driver’s side door handle and reaching into the car. Meanwhile, Ross goes around the car in front. Other images show it positioned next to the front left bumper. “Drive, baby, drive,” says Good’s wife.
The car backs up a bit, then moves forward, the front wheels turned to the right — away from ICE agents. “Wow,” Ross exclaimed before firing three shots into the car, one through the lower left corner of the windshield and two more through the front driver’s side window. The SUV continues down the street before crashing into a car parked on the left side. „Târfa dracului”, spune cineva. When Tapper asked Noem if that was Ross talking, she said “it could be”.
Ross’ behavior before the shooting raises some questions. First of all, why did he record the scene with his cell phone, keeping one of his hands occupied during a potentially dangerous encounter with someone Noem describes as a domestic terrorist? Second, why did Ross position himself in front of the car, which, according to Noem’s account, exposed him to the threat that justified the shooting?
“If you’re an agent,” security consultant Jonathan Wackrow told CNN, “you shouldn’t be burdened with anything in your hands. That’s what body-worn cameras are for. But don’t wear body-worn cameras.”
Law enforcement officers are trained not to stand in front of a vehicle during a traffic stop, precisely because of the danger Noem points out. “Officers should not stand in front of the suspect vehicle,” says the Metropolitan Police Academy, which trains police officers in Washington, DC. The preferred position, intended to minimize risk to officers, is on the driver’s or passenger’s side at or behind the “B-pillar” that separates the front and rear seats.
“Stepping in front of, standing behind, or trying to grab a vehicle to stop it will always be a losing proposition, possibly fatal,” warns former Minnesota police officer Duane Wolfe in a recent Police 1 article. “You can drastically reduce your chance of getting hit by doing everything in your power to avoid standing directly in front of [of] or behind a vehicle’.
If, however, an officer finds himself in the path of a moving vehicle, the Justice Department says, he can fire his weapon only if “there is no other objectively reasonable means of defense,” such as “moving out of the way of the vehicle.” The video shows Ross speeding away from the front of Good’s car.
At that point, according to Noem, Ross had already been hit. “He was hurt,” she told Tapper. “He went to the hospital. He was treated.”
Videos from bystanders don’t make it clear whether the car made contact with Ross, though they do show him walking around after the shooting, suggesting that whatever injuries he may have sustained were not very serious. In any case, President Donald Trump was clearly exaggerating when he said Good “struck with violence, will and malice” at Ross, adding that “it’s hard to believe he’s alive.”
Regardless of whether or not the car struck Ross, and regardless of how badly he was injured, he reasonably perceived danger while remaining in front of the vehicle (where he would not have been had he followed standard police practice). But it’s unclear if he was in the car’s path when he fired the first shot, and he certainly wasn’t when he fired the second and third shots.
When Tapper asked Noem about the justification for the shots Ross fired as the car drove past him, she noted that Ross made a decision “on the spur of the moment,” adding that he “took action based on his training to protect himself and the public.” But it’s hard to see how that’s true, since shooting Good didn’t stop the car from moving. Instead, the SUV went down the street without direction, stopping only after hitting another car. In any case, Ross compounded any threat the car might have posed by killing the person driving it.
Last Thursday, Vance tried to make light of Ross’s state of mind, noting an incident in June 2025 in which he was injured after pulling Roberto Carlos Muñoz, a Guatemalan who had been convicted of sexual abuse. “This ICE officer almost ended his life, dragged by a car, six months ago,” Vance told reporters. “Do you think maybe he’s a little sensitive when someone hits him with a car?”
As Tapper noted in his interview with Noem, this explanation suggests that prior experience “may have influenced” how Ross responded to Good. “There is no indication [of] this,” Noem said, which makes you wonder why Vance thought the information was relevant.
It seems to be relevant in at least one respect. That The New York Times notes, Ross was pulled because of how he responded after Muñoz refused to roll down his window and open his door. Ross “then fired his Taser, broke the rear driver’s side window of Mr. Muñoz’s car and reached out with one arm to try to unlock a door,” Times reports. “At that point, Mr. Muñoz got behind the wheel and drove away, dragging the officer.”
Ross was dragged about 100 yards, suffering an arm injury that required 20 stitches. “I feared for my life,” Ross recalled at the December trial that resulted in Muñoz’s conviction for assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon.
While the ordeal was certainly traumatic, Ross could have avoided it if he had followed another basic precaution that police officers should take during traffic stops. “It never ends up in the car,” a Police 1 the article warns. “Officers arriving in the vehicle are at risk of being dragged or otherwise attacked.” The agent who told Good to “get the hell out of the car” also ignored that advice.
Given the direction Good was heading, it seems doubtful that he intentionally “armed his vehicle.” However, Ross may have reasonably believed he was in danger when the SUV began to move forward, although that does not necessarily justify his response, especially after he was out of the vehicle’s path. And he could have avoided the encounter’s rapid escalation if he had taken basic precautions, which he seems to be ignoring.
“This investigation will continue to unfold,” Noem told Tapper, “and more and more information will come [out]However, Noem prejudiced the outcome by stating that Good deliberately tried to knock Ross down, that Ross acted in self-defense, and that he followed his training. She was making such statements, which the president and vice president echoed, within hours of the incident. If all the relevant facts were already known at the time, why bother with an investigation?
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