CHASKA, Minn. — Before Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Jonathan Ross encountered Renee Nicole Good on a snowy Minneapolis street, fatally shooting her as she tried to drive away during a confrontation, he spent years working for the government and serving in the military.
Now, as Minneapolis reels from yet another tragedy making national headlines, Ross is at the center of a debate over whether his actions during Wednesday’s confrontation were justified.
Trump administration figures, including President Donald Trump, have defended Ross and claimed that Good was an agitator who attempted to run him over with her SUV. Witnesses have told NBC News that it didn’t appear Ross was in the direct path of Good’s SUV as she tried to evade ICE officers.
Videos contradict Trump’s claim that Good “viciously ran over” Ross, showing that Good’s car didn’t knock him down and that his legs were to the side of the SUV as it moved by him while he fired.
On Friday, on a quiet, suburban cul-de-sac full of multilevel homes about 30 miles from the scene of the shooting in south Minneapolis, a few neighbors were out bicycling and walking their dogs. Hockey sticks lay on porches and “let it snow” signs decorated doorways.
Some onlookers from other neighborhoods had come to observe the scene outside Ross’ house, where he lives with his wife and children. Someone had ordered pizza to the home, and a delivery driver spent some time ringing the doorbell before returning to his car, taking the pies with him. Neighbors talked among themselves about getting away for the weekend.
One female neighbor, who asked that she not be identified by name for fear of retribution, said she saw people packing boxes at Ross’ home Friday morning.
“What I did see was three trucks and people moving boxes out of there. I texted one of my friends right away,” she said. “I mean, they were really hustling when I was down there.”
Asked who was moving the boxes, she said, “No idea.”
Multiple neighbors told NBC News that during the presidential election, a pro-Trump and at least one “Don’t Tread on Me” Gadsden sign had been on display. There were no political signs outside the house Friday, and Ross’ political affiliation is unknown.
A neighbor who also asked not to be identified by name said everyone in the neighborhood is “freaking out.” She said the pro-Trump signage at Ross’ home was noticeable because “part of the neighborhood is not generally supportive of Trump, so the houses stick out if they are.”
So far, Ross has not made any public statements about the shooting. NBC News has made numerous attempts to reach him with no response.
None of the neighbors interviewed were aware that Ross worked for ICE, but one suspected he had some kind of involvement with the military because they saw him wearing fatigue pants.
Deployed to Iraq as a member of the Indiana National Guard from November 2004 to November 2005, Specialist Ross of the 138th Signal Battalion earned the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Good Conduct Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Medal and the Iraq Campaign Medal among others, according to the guard.
During his time in Iraq, Ross was a machine gunner on a combat logistical patrol team, court documents show.
After he returned home, Ross joined the U.S. Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas, in 2007 and worked for the agency until 2015 as a field intelligence agent who gathered and analyzed information on drug cartels and human traffickers.
That year, Ross joined ICE as a deportation officer based in Minnesota whose job, he testified in a case recently, was to identify and arrest “higher value targets.”
Ross testified that he was also a member of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force as well as a firearms instructor and field intelligence officer. Ross said some of his work involves investigating organized crime and working on national security cases.
Ross was not part of the hiring surge that began in August under Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
While Ross’ name has been widely reported, the Department of Homeland Security has so far refused to “expose the name of this officer,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. But the agency has confirmed that Ross was seriously injured in June while trying to arrest an immigrant who had refused to get out of his car.
Court records viewed by NBC News revealed that the sequence of events that left Ross bloodied and bruised bore some similarities to the scenario that ended with Good’s death.
In both cases, Ross was confronting a driver at the wheel of a vehicle.
In the June incident, Ross broke the window of a car when the driver refused to exit the vehicle and then found himself being dragged at least 50 yards when the driver hit the gas.
“I was yelling at him to stop,” Ross testified of Robert Muñoz-Guatemala, who was found guilty last month of assault on a federal officer with a dangerous or deadly weapon. “Over and over and over again at the top of my lungs.”
Ross said in his testimony that he feared for his life and fired his Taser repeatedly at Muñoz-Guatemala.
“It didn’t appear that it affected him at all,” Ross said.
After Ross fell from Muñoz-Guatemala’s car, he was in “excruciating” pain, he said. He needed 33 stitches across all of his wounds.
Seven months after the dragging incident, Ross was on the job again in Minneapolis when he came across Good, a 37-year-old mother and U.S. citizen.
In videos of the confrontation, which is under investigation by the FBI, Good’s Honda Pilot SUV is seen partially blocking traffic on a residential street with several federal vehicles in her path. Next to the SUV, a woman, who later identified herself as Good’s wife, and Ross, who is masked, are recording the scene with their phones.
One ICE officer tells Good to get out of the car and one grabs the driver’s side door handle and reaches inside the open window.
Ross moves around the SUV, making his way to the front. Witness videos show Good reversing, then moving forward, turning her wheels to the right, away from the officers.
Ross, now at the front driver’s side of the SUV, draws his gun. His video captures what sounds like him shouting “whoa,” and he fires.
Witness videos show that at the moment Ross fires his first shot into the front of the SUV, its wheels are directed away from him. His legs appear to be clear of the car. He fires the second and third shots into the open driver’s side window as the car is moving.
Ross’ phone then captures the SUV accelerating down the street. A male voice says, “f-----g bitch.”
Good, struck in the head, loses control of the SUV, which accelerates and crashes into a parked car about 140 feet away.
Another of Ross’ neighbors said he was “shocked” when he found out the ICE officer who shot Good lives around the corner.
“I assumed it was some ICE agent that had come into Minnesota for their operations,” said a 44-year-old neighbor who asked to be identified by his first name, which is Jonathan. “It hurts to think that as someone who’s lived here for probably quite a while, because it doesn’t to me reflect what our community is about, what our state is about.”
