June dragging incident could have influenced ICE officer during fatal Minneapolis shooting, experts say. Only he knows

By Mark Morales, CNN

(CNN) — As questions continue to mount about the circumstances that led a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer to open fire and kill a 37-year-old woman in her vehicle in Minneapolis this week, the agent’s potentially traumatic recent history could be as much a point of discussion as his tactics and training.

In June of last year – months before he fatally shot Renee Nicole Good – the ICE officer found his arm pinned in the back window of a car as a suspect drove away from a traffic stop, dragging him about 100 yards, causing injuries to his arm and hand.

It is unclear how much that experience would have influenced the officer during the fatal confrontation with Good on Wednesday. But law enforcement experts told CNN the dragging incident last summer could have affected his decision-making – though how such an experience impacts law enforcement varies from officer to officer.

The officer might have remembered that incident in the moments before he pulled his service weapon and fired it at Good in the driver’s seat of her Honda Pilot, said former acting ICE Director John Sandweg.

“Every officer is going to take their own experiences, and they’re not going to separate from that,” Sandweg told CNN. “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 reaction to Good, who federal officials have accused of weaponizing her vehicle against ICE agents.

“You think,” the vice president asked, “maybe he’s a little bit sensitive about someone ramming him with an automobile?”

State and local officials have disputed claims the shooting, captured on video, was done in self-defense. On Friday, another video captured by the officer surfaced, and DHS said it corroborated its claims and bolstered its defense 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 said. “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, however, the lingering impact of being dragged last summer is known only to the officer – who is said to be experienced, with more than 10 years of service as an ICE deportation officer, according to DHS.

The former head of Homeland Security Investigations for San Antonio, Jerry Robinette, said the effect on an agent would differ from person to person.

“It really all depends … It’s very particular,” said Robinette, who added he has himself been involved in shooting incidents before. “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.”

Officer said he ‘feared for my life’

The violent encounter occurred June 17, 2025, when the ICE agent – identified in court records as Jonathan Ross – and other federal officers tried 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.

A senior Department of Homeland Security official confirmed that case involved the same officer who fired the shots that killed Good this week. The affidavit does not name Ross, referring to him only as an officer for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division. Other court documents, including an exhibit and witness list, make clear that it is Ross.

The agents tracked Muñoz-Guatemala to his home in Bloomington, Minnesota, according to the affidavit, and pulled him over in his vehicle when he tried to drive away.

Ross initially drew his service weapon but holstered it after Muñoz-Guatemala stopped his car and raised his hands, the affidavit says. When Muñoz-Guatemala didn’t lower his car window, Ross broke a back window to try to open the door. That’s when Muñoz-Guatemala took off “at a high rate of speed,” the affidavit says, with Ross still dangling from the car.

Ross later testified he discharged 10 rounds from his Taser and yelled for Muñoz-Guatemala to stop. The officer was eventually knocked off the vehicle, and other members of law enforcement took Muñoz-Guatemala into custody about a mile away.

The officer described the ordeal and his injuries during court testimony in December, saying he “feared for my life.”

In the immediate aftermath, the officer said he was in “pretty excruciating pain,” and that another federal agent had to apply a tourniquet to his arm to slow the bleeding. An ambulance responded, and the officer was taken to a hospital, he testified.

He suffered several injuries, he said, including lacerations to his right arm and left hand. The latter injury took about two weeks to heal, he said, limiting his ability to use it.

The laceration on his right arm also became infected, he said, and “hurt quite a bit.” He had to change the bandage twice a day, he said, describing it as a painful process.

Officers often get a say on return to duty

It’s possible that incident was in the officer’s mind before he fired his service weapon Wednesday, as he watched his colleagues approach Good’s vehicle, demanding she get out of her car.

“We don’t know what it is in his head,” said CNN 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 also possible Ross put himself in the shoes of his colleagues, Miller suggested: “Is he thinking, ‘I cannot let happen to him what happened to me, where I was seriously injured.’”

It’s unclear how soon the agent returned to duty after being dragged last June. But officers who undergo such an experience or are injured in the line of duty often have a say in when they return.

“Intervention is largely up to the officer involved,” said Sandweg, adding it would be unfair to stop an officer from going back to work just because they were involved in a violent incident. “If they’re up for going back, then they usually go back.”

CNN has asked ICE when Ross returned to work following the incident last June, and whether he needed any special mental health treatment to deal with lingering trauma. The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

In the midst of a high-stakes encounter, an officer may not have time to process his thoughts, according to Robinette.

“In my experience, you deal with that threat and that tunnel vision because you are focused on that threat,” Robinette said. “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.”

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