The ICE agent who shot and killed a woman in Minnesota this week is a 2001 Peoria Richwoods graduate, WCBU has learned through an examination of school and court records.
Jonathan E. Ross, 43, is at the center of a killing that has stoked tensions regarding aggressive behavior from federal immigration agents and has renewed calls for law enforcement accountability.
Ross shot and killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother, on Wednesday as she tried to drive away from ICE officers. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other Trump administration officials have defended Ross’ actions without naming him, while Vice President JD Vance has said ICE agents are “protected by absolute immunity.”
Rumors of Ross’ connection to Peoria swirled Friday on social media, hours after a Daily Mail story was published claiming to have interviewed Ross’ father, Ed, who the British publication said lives in North Pekin. A man who answered the phone at the father’s home immediately hung up when contacted by WCBU on Friday.
In his interview with the Daily Mail, Ed Ross defended his son’s actions.
“She hit him,” Ed Ross said. “He also had an officer whose arm was in the car. He will not be charged with anything.”
The Daily Mail story includes several photos it claims to be of Ross without a mask, unlike the bystander footage from the Minneapolis shooting. They match photos from an Instagram account that appears to be Ross’ wife’s account.
WCBU reviewed a 2001 Peoria Richwoods yearbook which shows a photo of a man named “Jonathan Ross” who strongly resembles the shooter in the Minneapolis bystander footage and the Daily Mail photos. Peoria Public Schools spokeswoman Marjorie Kauth said she can't verify or deny that Ross was a 2001 Richwoods graduate.
In the 2001 Richwoods yearbook, the next student after Ross is Aaron Rossi, the former CEO of Reditus Labs who is now in prison for a COVID testing fraud scheme.
A person named Jonathan E. Ross received a traffic ticket in 2000 in Peoria County. That person is now 43 years old, as is the Jonathan Ross involved in the Minneapolis shooting, according to multiple media reports, including The Associated Press.
A person named Jonathan Ross, then age 29, applied for a marriage license in July 2012, according to a record published in the Peoria Journal-Star. That person’s residence was listed as El Paso, Texas, where court records show Ross lived during that timeframe when he worked for U.S. Border Patrol. The other person listed on the marriage license has the same name as a woman listed on Ross' property records in Minnesota.
Ross has served as a deportation officer since 2015. He is married and lives in suburban Minneapolis, Newsweek reports. He previously served in the Indiana National Guard from 2002 to 2008 and served as a machine gunner in Iraq with the Headquarters Company, 138th Signal Battalion in 2004 and 2005, according to court documents obtained by WCBU. The Indiana National Guard told Newsweek that Ross earned an Army Commendation Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, Global War on Terrorism Medal and the Iraq Campaign Medal during his deployment. A phone call and email to the Indiana National Guard on Friday were not returned.
Ross became a law enforcement officer in 2007, according to testimony he provided in a court case last month. That legal case stemmed from an incident in which Ross was dragged by a vehicle as a suspect attempted to flee. Ross testified his arm was inside the suspect’s vehicle when the suspect sped off. Ross was hospitalized and treated for a leg injury following the incident, court records show.
According to court transcripts, Ross joined the U.S. Border Patrol, assigned near El Paso, Texas, and moved to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2015. He told the court he is an active shooter instructor and field intelligence officer and member of a SWAT Team in St. Paul, Minnesota, in addition to being a member of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.
