The ICE agent involved in the lethal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good during an immigration sweep in Minneapolis on Wednesday is Jonathan E Ross, according to court records that closely match the description of a June 2025 incident involving the agent in Bloomington, Minnesota, cited by the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, and JD Vance. Ross is a Minnesota resident and 10-year veteran of the special response team of ICE’s enforcement and removal operation.
The death of Good, a mother of three, sparked outrage in Minneapolis and strident rebukes from Minnesota officials and on Capitol Hill. Thousands of people gathered in protest near the site of the shooting Wednesday night, and some Democrats on Capitol Hill have threatened to withhold funding to the Department of Homeland Security. Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey, said on Wednesday: “To ICE: get the fuck out of Minneapolis.”
Federal officials have so far refused to identify the officer, though the Minneapolis Star Tribune first identified Ross on Thursday. The Federal Bureau of Investigation also refused on Thursday to involve Minnesota law enforcement in the investigation of Good’s killing, prompting the governor, Tim Walz, to say “it feels very, very difficult that we will get a fair outcome”.
Ross did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
In a statement to the Guardian, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant DHS secretary, said: “We are not going to expose the name of this officer. He acted according to his training.”
Noem called Good’s actions “an act of domestic terrorism” and accused her of blocking in federal agents with her vehicle before the lethal shooting, but also indicated that the agent involved had been “dragged” by a vehicle during an enforcement operation last year. Vance also said during a press briefing at the White House on Thursday that the unnamed agent was dragged by a car “six months ago” and shared specific details that align with court documents in a Minneapolis case last summer.
Videos of the shooting shared widely on social media show Good attempting to turn her red SUV around and leave the scene as a federal agent attempts to force open her passenger door. An ICE agent can be seen earlier walking around the car’s passenger side from the rear towards the front of the car on the driver’s side with his phone in his left hand. He leans forward and fires four shots from his pistol at Good. The car speeds away and crashes a short distance later into a car parked in the snow.
According to court records, Ross was involved in the June arrest of Roberto Carlos Muñoz, an undocumented Mexican immigrant with an open immigration detainer and a criminal conviction for sexually assaulting his 16-year-old stepdaughter in 2022. Muñoz was contacted at his residence in Bloomington, Minnesota, by a group of federal agents on 19 June 2025.
According to an affidavit from an FBI agent, Muñoz was in his car when federal law enforcement approached him. He did not comply with commands to get out of his vehicle and drove away. The feds pursued Muñoz and conducted a traffic stop. An ERO agent and an FBI agent approached the car and ordered Muñoz in both English and Spanish to put the car in park and provide documentation, which he did. When the ERO agent ordered Muñoz to exit the car, he refused.
At this point, according to the affidavit, the ERO agent broke the rear driver’s side window of Muñoz’s car and tried to unlock the driver’s door. Muñoz threw the car into drive, speeding off with the agent trapped in the vehicle by his arm and dragged behind the car for 100 yards down the street along the curb, weaving past several cars. The agent was jarred loose from the window and fell into the street, and Muñoz drove off. The agent suffered serious lacerations on both arms, which required 33 stitches in total to close.
At the White House on Thursday, Vance engaged in a lengthy defense of the officer’s actions and said: “[T]hat very ICE officer nearly had his life ended, dragged by a car six months ago, 33 stitches in his leg. So you think maybe he’s a little bit sensitive about somebody ramming him with an automobile.” The court documents indicate the stitches were on Ross’s arms and hand, not his leg.
Muñoz was detained by local police officers whom he’d contacted after fleeing the traffic stop, saying he’d been attacked by ICE. He was taken into custody on an immigration detainer, charged with assaulting an officer, and convicted in early December after a federal trial. His attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
Per jury instructions for Muñoz’s trial, the ERO agent injured in Muñoz’s detention was named Jonathan Ross. The FBI agent’s affidavit contains a picture of Ross from the back, and he has the same haircut as in videos of Good’s fatal shooting.
• This story was amended on 8 January 2026 to correct the name of the ICE officer who shot Renee Nicole Good, which is Jonathan E Ross, not Jonathan David Ross. An earlier version also reported property records and voter registration identifying a resident of north-east Minneapolis with a similar name; those details do not describe the ICE officer.
Cate Brown contributed reporting
