We’ve all seen the video, or videos, by now, the shooting of Renée Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross. The debate since has been whether he was justified in the shooting and whether he should be charged with murder.
I've now seen each of the videos taken, including the one that Ross himself made, and I fall on the side that he is a murderer and should be charged. I will now explain why.
Ross walks up to the vehicle being driven by Good as she is blocking the street with her vehicle. However, we can see vehicles driving past the front and the rear of her SUV. So, if ICE wanted to get past, they could. As Ross walked to her car, she said, "That's fine, dude. I'm not mad at you." She does not come across as threatening or dangerous in any way.
Ross then moves towards the rear of the vehicle with his camera in hand, getting a shot of her license plate (to harass at a later date), and then moves to the right of the vehicle. Good starts to pull forward, but another car moves in front of her, followed by one she waves on. The truck she’s waving to belongs to an ICE agent, who gets out, tries to grab her and open her door, and yells at her, triggering her instinctive fight‑or‑flight response.
Meanwhile, Ross, camera still in hand, has moved to the front of her vehicle. Which real law enforcement officers are taught not to do because it is dangerous. As someone with a military background and years in border control, he should have known better than to do that.
As Good has her wheel turned to the right, away from Ross, she panics and hits the gas, at which point Ross gets bumped with the left front fender of her vehicle, causing him to now panic, pull out his gun (with the camera still in hand), and shoot her three times. He then holsters his gun and calls her a "fucking bitch" before turning off his phone.
Which leads to my final point. Physics. I know some struggle with science, but let me break this down as simply as possible.
A Honda Pilot isn’t exactly quick off the line. From a complete stop, with 0–60 mph times around 6–7.5 seconds, the vehicle would be moving roughly 6–7 mph after the first 4 feet. Placing Ross about 4 feet from the front left of the Pilot, that’s the speed at which she would have hit him. Further proving the point, she did not knock him over as this ICE agent did to this person. She did not even hit him hard enough to cause him to drop his phone, so that most likely he would have a bit of bruising and soreness where he was hit. It is literally impossible that he would have internal bleeding, as DHS has said. And, impossible that he was in danger for his life and therefore was NOT justified in shooting her.
If ICE and right‑wing commentators are holding Renée Good liable for her panicked fight‑or‑flight reaction to the situation, then they should also hold Jonathan Ross responsible for his fight‑or‑flight reaction, considering that he was clearly in no real danger and that he is a law enforcement officer who should have been properly trained to control his instincts.
Jonathan Ross is guilty of murder and should be taken out of hiding and placed into a jail cell pending trial, as that would happen to any one of us if we shot someone in this scenario.
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