Minnesota ICE agent involved in deadly shooting of woman had prior dragging incident
MINNEAPOLIS — The federal immigration agent who fatally shot a woman in her car this week was dragged about 100 yards by a different driver in Minnesota last year during an immigration operation, interviews and court records show.
The agent, described by a spokesperson as a 10-year veteran of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, was treated for a gash on his forearm that required 20 stitches after the dragging incident, for which the driver was convicted of assault last month.
Now that same agent is at the center of a growing backlash over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts, after he shot and killed Renee Good, 37, in the driver’s seat of her car Wednesday.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said at a news conference Wednesday that the agent, whom she did not name, had feared for his life during the encounter, and noted that he had been dragged by a car in June. A department spokesperson confirmed Noem was referring to the Bloomington, Minn., case in which documents identified the injured officer as Jonathan Ross.
It is unclear when Ross, who is part of a division called Enforcement and Removal Operations, returned to work following the June incident in Bloomington.
Noem and other Trump administration officials have defended the agent as an experienced law enforcement professional who followed his training and shot Good in self-defense after he believed she was trying to run him or other agents over with her vehicle. A witness said Good received conflicting orders from ICE agents and was attempting to drive away as one of the agents had asked, according to MPR News. Video of the shooting has circulated online, and the FBI is investigating the deadly use of force. Some protesters are demanding that Ross face criminal charges, and Minnesota authorities also want to investigate.
Attempts to reach Ross, 43, at phone numbers and email addresses associated with him were not immediately successful.
Experienced military and law enforcement officer
In courtroom testimony about the Bloomington incident 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 on a gun 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 human smuggling.
Ross said he has served as a deportation officer based in Minnesota since he joined ICE in 2015. He is assigned to fugitive operations, seeking to arrest “higher value targets” in the ICE region that includes Minneapolis, he testified last month. He said that 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 that he was also a firearms instructor, an active shooter instructor, a field intelligence officer and member of the SWAT team. He said that he attended the Border Patrol’s academy in New Mexico, where he learned to speak Spanish.
Shooting of Muñoz
Ross and other agents were trying to apprehend a Guatemalan man who had been convicted of sexual abuse in Minnesota, according to court records. The agents followed the man, Roberto Carlos Muñoz, as he drove away from his house, and later pulled him over.
When Ross told the driver to lower his window and open his door, Muñoz refused, an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit. Ross then pulled his Taser, shattered the rear driver’s side window of Muñoz’s car and reached in with one arm to try to unlock a door. At that point, Muñoz shifted into drive and pulled away.
While being dragged, Ross fired his Taser at Muñoz, shocking him twice, the affidavit said, but Muñoz continued to drive for about 100 yards, weaving back and forth in an apparent effort to shake the agent from the car, which he finally did.
The agent landed on the street, bleeding from his right arm, and photographs taken later and included in court documents show a wound to his arm and blood on his pants and left hand. The cut to his arm required 20 stitches, according to court records.
Muñoz, meanwhile, had called 911 to say that he was assaulted by an immigration agent — a phone call that ultimately helped officers find and arrest him about a mile away.
His trial took place over several days in Minnesota last month. On Dec. 10, a jury deliberated for about two hours before convicting him of assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous or deadly weapon, resulting in injury.
Muñoz has not yet been sentenced, and his lawyer, Eric Newmark, declined to comment on his case.
Killing of Good
The Wednesday shooting of Good, an American citizen, in South Minneapolis has resulted in sharply different interpretations of the event from local and federal officials. President Donald Trump and other federal officials have said that the agent acted in self-defense, while state and local officials described those accounts with terms like “propaganda” and “garbage.”
Tricia McLaughlin, the Homeland Security spokesperson, said in a statement that the agent who killed Good, whom she also did not name, had extensive experience, including in marksmanship and as a member of ICE’s special response team, and that he had “acted according to his training” on Wednesday.
Minnesota law enforcement officials said Thursday that they were being denied access to evidence from the shooting by federal agencies, and could no longer participate in the investigation as a result.
Footage of the shooting shows one federal agent grabbing the handle of Good’s vehicle, which is partially blocking a street in South Minneapolis, while Ross walks around the front of her car. Good reverses slightly, then shifts into drive, moving the car toward the agent before turning the wheels to the right, away from him.
Ross fires one shot, then continues firing as the vehicle moves past him. It appears from the videos that he fired once through the front windshield and twice through the driver’s side window, killing Good.
This article includes information from the Associated Press.