The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who killed a mother of three in Minnesota is an Iraq veteran with a long history of working in anti-immigration operations, according to a report.
Federal agent Jonathan Ross fired three shots at Renee Good in Minneapolis on January 7 as she was sitting behind the wheel of her maroon Honda Pilot. Good and other neighbors had come out to protest the presence of immigration forces on their streets.
The Trump administration has rallied behind Ross, asserting he acted in self-defense and accused the wife and mom of running him over.
Ross has yet to speak or appear in public since the shooting, which has sparked protests and clashes with law enforcement in Minneapolis and beyond. It has also led to calls for ICE to slow its aggressive deportation push in Minnesota and other areas. An increase of deportation has been center of President Donald Trump’s agenda.
A picture of the twice-married agent’s history is now coming into focus, with one law enforcement officer who has worked with Ross describing him as “a thorough agent who would go down rabbit holes in search of undocumented migrants” in a New York Times profile.
Ross is “a longtime ICE officer who has been serving his country his entire life,” said Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security.
After graduating high school in Peoria, Illinois, in 2001, his career began in the National Guard. From there, Ross went on to join the U.S. Border Patrol and Customs in El Paso, Texas, before becoming a member of ICE’s special response team, where he has been for the past decade.
As a member of the Indiana National Guard, Ross was deployed to Iraq in November 2004 for a year where he served as a gunner in a logistics unit.
On his return, he spoke about the war at a “Support the Troops” event hosted by the College Republicans at Anderson University in Indiana in April 2006, which he attended according to the Times. He graduated with a degree in business administration and psychology in 2007.
That year, he joined the U.S. Border Patrol near El Paso and worked as a field intelligence agent, gathering and analyzing information on drug cartels. His duties included line-watching, which involves surveilling and apprehending targets along the border.
Ross stayed with Border Patrol until 2015, when he moved to Minnesota after taking a job with ICE and was primarily tasked with identifying and arresting “higher value targets,” NBC News reported, citing court testimony.
The agent had remarried and was living in a large home on a quiet street in the city of Chaska, a 30-minute drive from Minneapolis, according to the Times.
Ross’s political views are not known but during the presidential election, neighbors on his street claimed they recalled seeing a “pro-Trump” sign and a “Don’t Tread on Me” Gadsden flag on display outside his home, according to NBC News and the Times.
Colleagues of Ross told the Times that he “mostly avoided bringing up politics in his workplace.”
Ross was previously dragged by a fleeing suspect during the arrest of Roberto Carlos Munoz-Guatemala, a Mexican citizen, in Bloomington, Minnesota, in June 2025.
Munoz-Guatemala, who had previously been convicted of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct and was on a detainer, ignored ICE agents’ commands, prompting Ross to break open a window of his car and try to unlock the door.
Munoz-Guatemala then accelerated as Ross was screaming “at the top of my lungs” for him to stop. Munoz-Guatemala dragged the officer roughly 300 feet before he was “knocked” from the car.
As a result, Ross needed 20 stitches on his arm and 13 more on his hand, The Minnesota Star Tribune first reported. Munoz-Guatemala was later convicted of assaulting an officer.
The Department of Homeland Security has refused to name Ross in public statements but maintained “he acted according to his training.”
Ross is reportedly increasingly unlikely to face criminal charges for the killing of Good, whose family has hired the same law firm that represented George Floyd’s loved ones.
Isabel Keane contributed reporting
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