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By Holmes Lybrand, Allison Gordon, Jeff Winter, Casey Tolan, Isabelle Chapman, CNN
(CNN) — Last summer, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent found himself in a perilous situation.
His arm was pinned into the back window of a car as a suspect sped away, dragging him across the pavement for about 100 yards, according to court documents. The agent, who suffered injuries to his arm and hand, fired his Taser at the man during the encounter, records show.
Roughly six months later, the same officer faced another driver who hit the gas as he tried to stop her vehicle. This time, he fired with his service weapon – killing 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good.
The officer in the June case is identified in court documents as Jonathan Ross. A senior Department Homeland Security official confirmed that case involved the same officer who fired the shots that killed Good this week.
As authorities and lawmakers nationwide seek to untangle the circumstances behind the fatal shooting, Ross’s actions during the incident last summer and his professional background are facing renewed scrutiny.
A transcript of Ross’s testimony from the June case reviewed by CNN adds new detail to his experience, which includes a tour of duty with the National Guard in Iraq as a gunner from 2004 to in 2005. In his testimony he describes performing “hundreds” of traffic stops in his career over nearly two decades in Border Patrol and then ICE – including encounters with drivers seeking to flee.
“They do erratic behaviors, they take great risks, and they seem to not be aware of other people driving on the road,” Ross told the jury. “They usually – they make just extreme movements with their vehicles.”
Trump administration officials have cited that June case as evidence that ICE agents face deadly threats that compel them to react with extreme force.
“That very ICE officer nearly had his life ended, dragged by a car, six months ago,” Vice President JD Vance told reporters on Thursday. “You think maybe he’s a little bit sensitive about someone ramming him with an automobile?”
But local lawmakers and some experts say that this week’s situation was far from life-threatening to the ICE officer, as Good appeared to be swerving away from him as he began shooting.
“To use deadly force… the elements of that have to be so concerning to open up fire on an individual,” said former Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo, adding in a CNN interview that the agent should simply have gotten out of the way of Good’s car.
Michael Harrigan, a retired FBI agent who now consults on law enforcement practices and tactics, said it’s not unreasonable to believe that the prior car dragging case may have been on the ICE officer’s mind as he pulled the trigger. But Harrigan said agents are trained to evaluate every incident individually.
“The fact is every incident has to stand alone,” Harrigan said. “It doesn’t really matter what they went through before. It’s never going to be a justification for something else. They know that.”
Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, who declined to n