EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — The federal agent who shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday has ties to El Paso.
The Associated Press has identified the agent as Jonathan Ross, who used to work in El Paso, according to the AP.
After returning from Iraq, Ross joined the Border Patrol and was stationed near El Paso.
Ross is an Iraq War veteran who has served for nearly two decades in the Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to records obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.
Ross, who shot and killed Renee Good, has served as a deportation officer with ICE since 2015, records show.
He was seriously injured last summer when he was dragged by the vehicle of a fleeing suspect whom he shot with a stun gun.
Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem said the agent who shot Good had been dragged by a vehicle last June, and a department spokesperson confirmed Noem was referring to the Bloomington, Minnesota, case in which documents identified the injured officer as Ross.
Noem and other Trump administration officials have defended the agent as an experienced law enforcement professional who followed his training and shot Good after he believed she was trying to run him or other agents over with her vehicle.
The video has raised questions about whether the shooting was in self-defense, and the FBI is investigating the deadly use of force. Some protesters are demanding that Ross face criminal charges, and Minnesota authorities also want to investigate.
Experienced military and law enforcement officer
In courtroom testimony last month, Ross said he deployed to Iraq from 2004 to 2005 with the Indiana National Guard. Ross said he served as a machine gunner on a gun truck as part of a combat patrol team.
He said he returned from Iraq in 2005, went to college, and joined the Border Patrol in 2007 near El Paso, Texas.
He worked there until 2015, serving as a field intelligence agent gathering and analyzing information on cartels and drug and human smuggling.
Ross said he has served as a deportation officer based in Minnesota since he joined ICE in 2015.
He is assigned to fugitive operations, seeking to arrest “higher value targets” in the ICE region that includes Minneapolis, he testified last month. He said that he was also a team leader with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.
“So I develop the targets, create a target package, surveillance, and then develop a plan to execute the arrest warrant,” he said.
Ross said that he was also a firearms instructor, an active shooter instructor, a field intelligence officer and member of the SWAT team. He said that he attended the Border Patrol’s academy in New Mexico, where he learned to speak Spanish.
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