High tension prevailed in Minneapolis on Friday, a day after the ICE shooting in the area that claimed the life of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer behind the shooting has been identified as Jonathan Ross.
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Who is Jonathan Ross?
Ross, 43, has served as an Enforcement and Removal Operations agent and Iraq War veteran. For nearly two decades, he has served in the Border Patrol. Since 2015, he has been serving as a deportation officer with the ICE.
With the video of the incident emerging, details about Ross’s past have emerged, and it seems that he had a similar incident six months ago.
Defending the ICE officer, US Vice President J.D Vance said that the officer was dragged by a car, causing an injury requiring 33 stitches.
Speaking to the reporters at the White House, Vance added: “So you think maybe he’s a little bit sensitive about somebody ramming him with an automobile.”
The court records revealed that Ross was deployed from 2004 to 2005 with the Indiana National Guard. He said that he served as a machine gunner on a gun truck as part of a combat patrol team.
He returned from Iraq in 2005. He joined the Border Patrol in 2007. He worked there until 2015, serving as a field intelligence agent gathering and analysing information on cartels and drug and human smuggling.
He has also served as a team leader with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Similar incident six months ago
As part of Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, Ross went to arrest Roberto Munoz-Guatemala, who was in the US, in his car. Though the FBI agents identified them as police and instructed Munoz-Guatemala to pull over. But he did not. Ross pulled his vehicle diagonally in front of his car to force him to stop.
Ross approached Munoz-Guatemala’s car and told him to lower his window. However, Munoz-Guatemala drove off while Ross’s arm was caught in the vehicle. He was dragged for a few metres before the accused was tasered.
The Trump administration and the Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem defended the shooter and said that the act was in “self-defence”. An investigation was launched into the incident.
