MINNEAPOLIS (USA) - The federal immigration agent who shot and killed a local driver in Minneapolis on Wednesday is 43-year-old Jonathan Ross, U.S. media reported. Meanwhile, local authorities are still trying to gain access to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigation into the incident, AP reported. Minneapolis schools today offered students the option of distance learning for a month due to the tense situation in the city, it said.
Ross' name appeared in the media after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told a news conference that the agent who killed Renee Nicole Good last year suffered injuries after a car dragged him behind her during another immigration operation. The media subsequently learned his identity from court documents about the incident.
Immigration agents attempted to detain undocumented migrant Roberto Carlos Muñoz-Guatemala during a traffic stop last June, according to the NBC News website. After the man refused to obey them, Ross broke the window of his car and reached inside; in doing so, his arm became wedged in the vehicle, according to court documents. When Muñoz-Guatemala tried to flee, he dragged the officer next to the car. Ross suffered lacerations that required 33 stitches to close, court documents say. Muñoz-Guatemala, who was found guilty of assaulting Ross and battery, is now awaiting sentencing. Noem described Ross, whom she did not name, as a skilled agent at Wednesday's news conference. According to the New York Times, Ross has been with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for ten years.
In a large-scale crackdown by immigration agents in Minneapolis, in the northern United States, it was Ross who shot and killed Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, on Wednesday as she tried to flee when a group of agents tried to stop her, according to published video footage. According to the Department of Homeland Security, the ICE agent fired in self-defense as the woman drove her car into him, a claim Minnesota authorities have flatly denied. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called on ICE agents to leave the city.
The shooting of the woman sparked widespread protests, which continue. Police in Minneapolis deployed tear gas against protesters gathered outside federal headquarters on Thursday and detained several people. Residents set up barricades of assorted objects on the street where Good was killed. Local firefighters announced today that they were removing them for safety reasons. On Thursday, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz called on federal authorities to allow state police to participate in the investigation of the case, a request that Secretary Noem has rejected, claiming that state police do not have the authority to investigate. Walz said Minnesota residents will find it „very, very difficult to accept“ as fair the results of an investigation without local police involvement. Federal officials, including President Donald Trump, who said the ICE agent fired in self-defense, are making demonstrably flawed judgments, Walz said.
Mayor Frey reiterated Walz's request today. „It's time to follow the law. It's not time to hide from the facts,“ he said, according to Reuters. Local Hennepin County Prosecutor Mary Moriarty urged witnesses to the killing of Good to contact her directly with any video footage or testimony and not the FBI. She said at a news conference that although she has cooperated with federal investigators in the past without problems, in this case she is concerned about the decision not to allow local investigators access to the evidence. „It is within our jurisdiction to determine what happened. It doesn't matter that it was a federal agent,“ she said, according to the AP.
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