Jonathan Ross – a veteran of the Iraq War and a husband to a woman with Filipino parents – has been unmasked as the ICE federal agent who shot a mother dead in Minneapolis.
Now that he is at the centre of a growing backlash over the Donald Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts, more details are coming out about him.
It took less than 48 hours after the killing of Renee Good, in her car, during a raid on Wednesday, for Ross to be named, as the attack spurred protests in the Minnesota city.
What we now know is that he has served as a deportation officer with ICE – the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement – since 2015, records show.
The 43-year-old was seriously injured last summer when he was dragged about 100 metres by the vehicle of a fleeing suspect whom he shot with a stun gun.
Federal officials have not named the officer who shot Good, a 37-year-oldmother of three children who had recently moved to Minnesota and had no criminal record.
Homeland secretary Kristi Noem said the agent who killed her had been dragged by a vehicle last June.
Later, a department spokesperson confirmed Noem was referring to the Bloomington, Minnesota, case in which documents identified the injured officer as Ross.
Ed Ross, his father, defended his son’s decision to shoot Good dead, in an interview with the Daily Mail.
‘She hit him,’ said the 80-year-old. ‘He also had an officer whose arm was in the car. He will not be charged with anything.’
Defending his son, he described him as a ‘committed and conservative Christian, a tremendous father, a tremendous husband.’
‘You would never find a nicer, kinder person,’ the father added. ‘ I couldn’t be more proud of him.’
The elderly dad from North Pekin, Illinois, said his son’s wife was a US citizen but declined to say how long she had been in the US. ‘I do not want to go any further than that,’ he added.
Neighbours revealed that Ross is a hardcore Make America Great Again supporter.
Until recently he had been flying pro-Trump flags and a ‘Don’t Tread On Me’ Gadsden Flag, an emblem of the MAGA movement.
‘I think he’s in the military,’ one neighbour added. ‘He has a military licence plate.
‘He had a don’t tread on me flag, and Trump/Vance stickers up during the election.
‘The wife is polite, very nice, very outgoing, while he’s very reserved. They have a couple of kids.’
Noem and other Trump administration officials have also defended the ICE agent as an experienced law enforcement professional who followed his training.
‘This appears as an attempt to kill or to cause bodily harm to agents, an act of domestic terrorism,’ she told a press conference.
‘The ICE officer, fearing for his life and the other officers around him and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots; he used his training to save his own life and that of his colleagues.’
Meanwhile, Trump claimed on Truth Social that video from the scene of the attack showed the agent being run over.
Footage shows the officer telling Good, ‘Get out of the fucking car,’ before unleashing his gun at her car three times, then walking away apparently uninjured.
Vice president JD Vance said the shooting was justified and Good was a ‘victim of left-wing ideology.’
‘I can believe that her death is a tragedy while also recognizing that it is a tragedy of her own making,’ he said, noting that the officer who killed her was wounded while making an arrest last June.
But state and local officials and protesters rejected that characterization, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey saying video recordings show the self-defence argument is ‘garbage.’
Why are ICE agents allowed to wear masks?
ICE officers did not used to wear masks. That is at least until the start of 2025 when Trump’s deportation campaign escalated.
Since the US president returned to the White House for his second term, the agency has made thousands of arrests – many of them going viral on social media.
With that, protests against the agents has grown. To hide their identity, they have started hiding their faces – donning balaclavas and ski masks – as they carry out raids, often with great force.
Legal advocates and attorneys general have argued that it poses issues with accountability and contributes to a climate of fear.
In response to the mounting criticisms, ICE says: ‘ICE law enforcement officers wear masks to prevent doxing, which can (and has) placed them and their families at risk.
‘All ICE law enforcement officers carry badges and credentials and will identify themselves when required for public safety or legal necessity.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].
For more stories like this, check our news page.
