MINNEAPOLIS — The federal agent who shot and killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother, during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis on Jan. 7 is Jonathan Ross, a 43-year-old Iraq War veteran with nearly two decades in the Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.
Federal officials declined to publicly name Ross, citing safety concerns for him and his family, but a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was referring to Ross when she said the agent had been dragged by a vehicle the previous June.
The FBI is investigating the shooting, which was captured on video that has raised questions about whether Good’s vehicle posed an imminent threat to agents when Ross fired. Protesters have demanded that Ross face criminal charges, and Minnesota authorities have also sought to investigate.
Military service and law enforcement career
Ross deployed to Iraq from 2004 to 2005 with the Indiana National Guard, where he served as a machine-gunner on a gun truck as part of a combat patrol team, he said in courtroom testimony last month. He returned from Iraq in 2005, attended college and joined the Border Patrol in 2007 near El Paso, Texas.
During his eight years with the Border Patrol, Ross served as a field intelligence agent, gathering and analyzing information on cartels and drug and human smuggling operations, according to his testimony.
Ross joined ICE as a deportation officer in 2015 and has been based in Minnesota since. He is assigned to fugitive operations, seeking to arrest what he described as “higher value targets” in the ICE region that includes Minneapolis. He also served as 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,” Ross said in his testimony.
Ross also said in testimony that he has served as a firearms instructor, an active shooter instructor, a field intelligence officer and a member of the SWAT team. DHS assistant Tricia McLaughlin noted Thursday that Ross had been selected for ICE’s special response team, which she said includes a 30-hour tryout and additional training in specialized skills such as breaching techniques, perimeter control, hostage rescue and firearms.
Serious injury last June
Ross’s connection to a prior incident helped link him to Good’s shooting. Noem said the agent who shot Good had been dragged by a vehicle the previous June, and a DHS spokesperson confirmed Noem was describing the Bloomington, Minnesota, case in which documents named Ross as the injured officer.
On June 17, Ross led a team of agents to arrest Roberto Munoz-Guatemala, a man in the country illegally, according to court records. Munoz-Guatemala left his home by car. Agents activated emergency sirens and lights, but he did not stop. Ross pulled his vehicle diagonally in front of Munoz-Guatemala’s car to block it.
After Munoz-Guatemala raised his hands and agents identified themselves as police, Ross approached the vehicle and ordered him to put it in park. Ross used a spring-loaded window punch to break the rear driver’s side window and reached inside to unlock the door. Munoz-Guatemala then drove off with Ross’s arm caught in the vehicle.
Ross fired a Taser, striking Munoz-Guatemala in the head, face and shoulder. Munoz-Guatemala was not incapacitated, prosecutors said, and kept driving, carrying Ross the length of a football field in 12 seconds before Ross was knocked free when the vehicle drove onto a curb a second time and back to the street.
Ross received dozens of stitches at a hospital and suffered “multiple large cuts, and abrasions to his knee, elbow, and face,” according to prosecutors. “It was pretty excruciating pain,” Ross testified.
A jury found Munoz-Guatemala guilty last month of assault on a federal officer with a dangerous or deadly weapon, determining that he “should reasonably have known that Jonathan Ross was a law enforcement officer and not a private citizen attempting to assault him.”
Administration defense
Senior Trump administration officials defended Ross’s conduct Thursday without publicly naming him.
Vice President JD Vance praised the agent, saying he “deserves a debt of gratitude.”
“This is a guy who’s actually done a very, very important job for the United States of America,” Vance said. “He’s been assaulted. He’s been attacked. He’s been injured because of it.”
McLaughlin said the agent acted properly. “He acted according to his training,” she said. “This officer is a longtime ICE officer who has been serving his country his entire life.”
Noem and other Trump administration officials said Ross opened fire after he believed Good was trying to run him or other agents over with her vehicle. Attempts by the AP to reach Ross at phone numbers and email addresses associated with him were not immediately successful.