Jonathan Ross, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who killed Renee Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, was suspended from duty pending an investigation into the incident, according to official information cited by the Huffpost on Wednesday.
Tricia McLaughlin, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), confirmed to the media that Ross had been placed on administrative leave, although she did not specify when the suspension occurred.
Good’s death sparked a wave of protests across the United States, which grew last weekend after the death of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse shot by Border Patrol agents involved in immigration raids in Minneapolis.
The two officers who shot Pretti were also suspended from duty, DHS announced today.
Senior officials of US President Donald Trump’s administration defended the actions of the immigration agents in the two shootings. In the case of Ross, US Vice President JD Vance assured that the agent enjoyed “absolute immunity”.
Good, who had blocked the officers’ path with her vehicle, was maneuvering to remove it from the raid area when the officers approached her in an attempt to stop her, at which point Ross, who was in front, shot her and ended her life.
The Trump Administration claimed from the outset that the agent acted in self-defense because Good, 37, attempted to run him over with his vehicle, and that he is therefore innocent.
The FBI-led investigation into Good’s death has come under fire, especially from Minnesota state authorities, who were denied access to evidence.
Following this background, Minnesota prosecutors sought and obtained an emergency order from a federal judge to prohibit DHS and federal agencies from destroying or tampering with evidence about Pretti’s death.
This Wednesday, a group of Democratic lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee urged the Department of Justice (DOJ) to open a civil rights investigation into Good’s death.
In their letter to Deputy Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, the senators emphasized that the DOJ’s decision not to investigate the murder of the woman, a mother of three, “is emblematic” and part of a broader trend by the DOJ to ignore enforcement of civil rights laws in favor of carrying out President Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
With information from EFE
