By Holmes Lybrand, Allison Gordon, Jeff Winter, Scott Glover, Casey Tolan, 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.
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 name Ross, citing violent threats to ICE agents, said he “is a longtime ICE officer who has been serving his country his entire life.” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has defended the officer’s actions.
“This is an experienced officer who followed his training, and we’ll continue to let the investigation unfold into the individual and continue to follow the procedures and policies that happen in these use of force cases,” Noem said at a news conference.
The agent’s decade-plus of experience included a selection to an ICE Special Response Team, McLaughlin said, which requires 30 hours of tryouts, continuous training and expert marksman qualifications.
His violent encounter with a suspect last June began when federal officials moved in to arrest Roberto Carlos Muñoz-Guatemala, an undocumented immigrant who had been charged with sexually abusing a teenage relative in 2022, according to a court affidavit written by an FBI agent involved in the case.
At the time, ICE had requested local officials hold him in jail, but that request was denied, the affidavit said. The affidavit refers to Muñoz-Guatemala as being from Guatemala, while a DHS Read more