federal agent who Shoot a driver An Iraq War veteran in Minneapolis has served with the Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for nearly two decades, records obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday show.
Jonathan Ross, who Filming Renee Goode Records show he has worked with ICE as a deportation officer since 2015. Last summer, he was seriously injured when he was dragged from a fleeing suspect’s vehicle and shot with a stun gun.
Federal officials have not yet released the name of the officer who shot Goode. Goode, a 37-year-old mother, was shot while trying to escape federal agents in her car. But Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the agent who shot Goode was towed away in a vehicle last June, and a DHS spokesman confirmed Noem was referring to the Bloomington, Minnesota, case where documents identified the injured officer as Ross.
Noem and other Trump administration officials have defended the agent, saying he was a seasoned law enforcement professional who received his training and shot Goode after he thought he was trying to run him or other agents over with his vehicle. Video raises questions The FBI is investigating the deadly use of force as to whether the shooting was in self-defense. Some protesters demanded Ross faces criminal charges and Minnesota authorities also want to investigate.
Attempts to reach Rose, 43, at phone numbers and email addresses associated with him were not immediately successful.
Here is some information about him:
Experienced military and law enforcement officials
Ross said in court testimony last month that he deployed to Iraq with the Indiana National Guard from 2004 to 2005. Ross said he served as a machine gunner on a gun truck as part of a combat patrol.
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 as a field intelligence agent, collecting and analyzing information on cartels, drugs and human trafficking.
Ross said he has been working as a deportation officer in Minnesota since joining ICE in 2015. He testified last month that he was assigned to conduct fugitive operations seeking to apprehend “higher value targets” in ICE districts, including Minneapolis. He said he is also the leader of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.
“So I develop a target, develop a target package, conduct surveillance, and then develop a plan to execute the warrant,” he said.
He is also a firearms instructor, an active marksmanship instructor, a field intelligence officer and a SWAT team member, Ross said. He said he attended the Border Patrol Academy in New Mexico, where he learned to speak Spanish.
Seriously injured in June last year
Ross was the leader of a team of agents who arrested a man in the United States illegally on June 17 in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington. Agents gathered outside the home of the man, Roberto Munoz-Guatemala, who drove off, according to court records.
FBI agents activated emergency sirens and lights, instructing him to pull over, but he did not. Rose pulled the vehicle diagonally in front of Munoz-Guatemala, forcing him to stop.
Ross and an FBI agent identified themselves as police officers and pointed guns at Munoz-Guatemala, who had his hands up. Rose then approached Munoz-Guatemala’s vehicle and ordered him to park in the parking lot.
Ross told the driver to lower the window all the way and warned that if he didn’t, he would break the window. Ross used a device called a “spring window punch” to break the driver’s rear window and reached inside the vehicle to open the driver’s side door.
As Muñoz-Guatemala drove away, Rose’s arm was caught in the car and it accelerated, dragging Rose into the street. Rose fired the Taser, striking Munoz-Guatemala in the head, face and shoulder with the tip.
Muñoz-Guatemala was not struck down by the Taser and continued driving, prosecutors said, and Rose ran the length of a football field in 12 seconds. After Munoz-Guatemala drove onto the curb a second time and returned to the street, Ross was forced from the vehicle.
Ross’ right arm was bleeding and an FBI agent applied a tourniquet. Eventually, he needed dozens of stitches in the hospital. Prosecutors said he suffered “multiple extensive cuts and abrasions to his knees, elbows and face.”
“It was very painful,” Ross testified.
Muñoz-Guatemala was bleeding from his injuries when a woman called 911 to say he had been attacked and didn’t know if the person who tried to stop him was a police officer. He was arrested and charged with assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous or deadly weapon.
A jury convicted Muñoz-Guatemala at a trial last month, finding that he “should have reasonably known that Jonathan Ross was a law enforcement officer and not a private citizen who attempted to assault him.”
Federal officials defended the agent but did not reveal his identity
On Thursday, Vice President J.D. Vance praised the agent’s service to the country without naming him, saying the ICE official “deserves gratitude.”
“This man actually did very, very important work for the United States of America,” Vance said. “He was assaulted. He was assaulted. He was injured as a result.”
Homeland Security Assistant Tricia McLaughlin declined Thursday to confirm the agent’s identity, saying doing so would put his and his family’s safety at risk. But she noted that he had been selected for ICE’s Special Response Team, which includes 30 hours of selection and additional training in specialized skills such as breaching techniques, perimeter control, hostage rescue and firearms.
“He did what he was trained to do,” she said. “This officer is a long-serving ICE officer who has dedicated his life to serving our country.”
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Associated Press writers Michael Bisek and Jonathan J. Cooper contributed to this report.