As questions proceed to mount concerning the circumstances that led a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer to open fireplace and kill a 37-year-old woman in her vehicle in Minneapolis this week, the agent’s probably traumatic latest historical past could be as a lot a degree of debate as his techniques and coaching.
In June of final yr – months earlier than he fatally shot Renee Nicole Good – the ICE officer discovered his arm pinned within the again window of a automobile as a suspect drove away from a visitors cease, dragging him about 100 yards, inflicting accidents to his arm and hand.
It is unclear how a lot that have would have influenced the officer during the fatal confrontation with Good on Wednesday. But legislation enforcement experts advised NCS the dragging incident final summer season could have affected his decision-making – although how such an expertise impacts legislation enforcement varies from officer to officer.
The officer may have remembered that incident within the moments earlier than he pulled his service weapon and fired it at Good within the driver’s seat of her Honda Pilot, stated former appearing ICE Director John Sandweg.
“Every officer is going to take their own experiences, and they’re not going to separate from that,” Sandweg advised NCS. “If you had been through an incident that he had been in, that’s going to influence your thinking.”
Vice President JD Vance raised the June encounter with reporters Thursday, suggesting it could have impacted the officer’s response to Good, who federal officers have accused of weaponizing her automobile towards ICE brokers.
“You think,” the vice chairman requested, “maybe he’s a little bit sensitive about someone ramming him with an automobile?”
State and native officers have disputed claims the capturing, captured on video, was carried out in self-defense. On Friday, another video captured by the officer surfaced, and DHS stated it corroborated its claims and bolstered its protection of the agent’s actions.
“This footage corroborates what DHS has stated all along—that this individual was impeding law enforcement and weaponized her vehicle in an attempt to kill or cause bodily harm to federal law enforcement,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated. “The officer was in fear of his own life, the lives of his fellow officers and acted in self-defense. The American people can watch this video with their own eyes and ears and judge for themselves.”
Ultimately, nonetheless, the lingering impression of being dragged final summer season is understood solely to the officer – who is claimed to be skilled, with greater than 10 years of service as an ICE deportation officer, in keeping with DHS.
The former head of Homeland Security Investigations for San Antonio, Jerry Robinette, stated the impact on an agent would differ from individual to individual.
“It really all depends … It’s very particular,” stated Robinette, who added he has himself been concerned in capturing incidents earlier than. “It affects people differently … You have the availability of medical and psychological assistance if it’s necessary. And again, it’s going to vary from person to person.”
The violent encounter occurred June 17, 2025, when the ICE agent – recognized in courtroom information as Jonathan Ross – and different federal officers tried to arrest Roberto Carlos Muñoz-Guatemala, an undocumented immigrant who had been charged with sexually abusing a teenage relative in 2022, in keeping with a courtroom affidavit written by an FBI agent concerned within the case.
A senior Department of Homeland Security official confirmed that case concerned the identical officer who fired the pictures that killed Good this week. The affidavit doesn’t identify Ross, referring to him solely as an officer for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division. Other courtroom paperwork, together with an exhibit and witness listing, clarify that it’s Ross.
The brokers tracked Muñoz-Guatemala to his residence in Bloomington, Minnesota, in keeping with the affidavit, and pulled him over in his automobile when he tried to drive away.
Ross initially drew his service weapon however holstered it after Muñoz-Guatemala stopped his automobile and raised his palms, the affidavit says. When Muñoz-Guatemala didn’t decrease his automobile window, Ross broke a again window to attempt to open the door. That’s when Muñoz-Guatemala took off “at a high rate of speed,” the affidavit says, with Ross nonetheless dangling from the automobile.
Ross later testified he discharged 10 rounds from his Taser and yelled for Muñoz-Guatemala to cease. The officer was finally knocked off the automobile, and different members of legislation enforcement took Muñoz-Guatemala into custody a few mile away.
The officer described the ordeal and his accidents during courtroom testimony in December, saying he “feared for my life.”
In the quick aftermath, the officer stated he was in “pretty excruciating pain,” and that one other federal agent needed to apply a tourniquet to his arm to gradual the bleeding. An ambulance responded, and the officer was taken to a hospital, he testified.
He suffered a number of accidents, he stated, together with lacerations to his proper arm and left hand. The latter damage took about two weeks to heal, he stated, limiting his potential to make use of it.
The laceration on his proper arm additionally grew to become contaminated, he stated, and “hurt quite a bit.” He needed to change the bandage twice a day, he stated, describing it as a painful course of.
It’s attainable that incident was within the officer’s thoughts earlier than he fired his service weapon Wednesday, as he watched his colleagues strategy Good’s automobile, demanding she get out of her automobile.
“We don’t know what it is in his head,” stated NCS Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller. “But I think it’s something that would be considered when they investigate this case.”
It’s additionally attainable Ross put himself within the footwear of his colleagues, Miller instructed: “Is he thinking, ‘I cannot let happen to him what happened to me, where I was seriously injured.’”
It’s unclear how quickly the agent returned to obligation after being dragged final June. But officers who bear such an expertise or are injured within the line of obligation typically have a say in once they return.
“Intervention is largely up to the officer involved,” stated Sandweg, including it could be unfair to cease an officer from going again to work simply because they have been concerned in a violent incident. “If they’re up for going back, then they usually go back.”
NCS has requested ICE when Ross returned to work following the incident final June, and whether or not he wanted any particular psychological well being remedy to cope with lingering trauma. The company didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Friday.
In the midst of a high-stakes encounter, an officer might not have time to course of his ideas, in keeping with Robinette.
“In my experience, you deal with that threat and that tunnel vision because you are focused on that threat,” Robinette stated. “You don’t have the latitude to see everything that’s around you because you’re focused in on that threat. A lot of times, things happen so fast that you don’t even realize everything that’s happened.”