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And now, let us continue the discussion, turning our focus to the shooter.

The Shooter

As we noted in yesterday's item, the shooter was quickly identified (so much for those masks that ICE officers have been wearing). His name is Jonathan Ross, and he is a decorated veteran of the Iraq War, having been deployed as a member of the Indiana National Guard. After leaving the service, he joined the U.S. Border Patrol's El Paso, TX, office in 2007. Then, he transitioned over to ICE in 2015, and he's been working for that agency ever since.

There has been much commentary, particularly on social media, but also in broadcast and print media, about how the Trump administration's rush to staff ICE, and to deport immigrants en masse, has led to a serious decline in standards, and has allowed agents to take the field when they have no business doing so. This is absolutely true. To take one concrete example, ICE agents used to undergo 5 months of training. Now, that has been shortened to 48 days, or sometimes less, if there is a holiday during the now-8-week training period. Officials are particularly delighted when exactly one day of training is lost, leaving just 47. Because, you see, Trump is the 47th president. So, that's just... perfect. We are not making this up.

Anyhow, while it is tempting to some people to reach the conclusion that Ross is one of the hastily trained, poorly vetted ICE officers who is now in the field, it just isn't so. He clearly is an experienced, and properly trained, agent. Of course, this does not preclude the possibility that his partners on the day of the shooting were badly trained, and so helped trigger a loss of operational control. It also does not preclude the possibility that Ross should have been removed from his post, but wasn't because the Trump administration can't afford to let people go. Still, while we allow for these possibilities, we tend to think "ICE has a lot of unqualified, under-trained officers who don't know what they're doing" is probably not a key element in the Minneapolis shooting.

If Ross WAS a candidate for removal or demotion, it would almost certainly be due to an incident back in June of last year. On that occasion, in Bloomington, IN, Ross endeavored to arrest Roberto Carlos Muoz-Guatemala, a Mexican citizen accused of being in the U.S. illegally. Muoz-Guatemala refused to obey officers' commands, including a command to roll down his window, so Ross shattered the back window and tried to reach in and open the driver's side door of Muoz-Guatemala's vehicle. Muoz-Guatemala attempted to flee, and Ross was dragged several hundred feet, twice firing his taser in an attempt to subdue the driver. Eventually, Ross fell free of the vehicle. Later, Muoz-Guatemala was detained. Much later than that, Muoz-Guatemala was convicted of assaulting a federal officer.

In view of what happened, it's fair to ask if Ross tends to be a little reckless in his approach to his job. Most officers, even most ICE officers, don't have one confrontation like this on their record, and Ross now has two (one fatal, of course). It's also fair to ask if he was in the right headspace on the day of the shooting, inasmuch as what happened last week very likely triggered memories of what happened last June. Indeed, it's not outlandish to suggest that maybe he was suffering from some sort of PTSD. In fact, J.D. Vance made that very suggestion in his remarks, saying that Ross flashed back to the earlier incident on the day of the shooting. And all of this makes it fair to ask whether the DHS should have removed Ross from active duty for some period of time (or permanently), and if they were negligent in failing to do so. All of these questions are likely to come up in court, should the matter be put before the legal system.

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But will that happen? Very early on, just hours after the shooting, The Wall Street Journal spoke to Emmanuel Maulen, who is a law professor at the University of Minnesota. According to his faculty bio, he "writes about the roles that police and other state security actors play in producing social, political, and legal regimes of domination and subordination." So, he would certainly seem to an excellent person to consult about an incident like this, particularly when the incident happened in Minnesota.

The linked piece is behind a paywall (sorry), but here's the main thrust:

Without cooperation from federal agencies, it will be close to impossible for state officials to put together a case, said Emmanuel Maulen, a law professor at the University of Minnesota. State prosecutors are now unlikely to have access to any further evidence"body-worn camera footage, if it exists, interviews with the officer and witnesses, medical reports"and any other investigative material that could be part of a case, Maulen said.

That's pretty definitive. And there are unattributed notions floating around in the ether right now that would seem to affirm Maulen's assertions, like "A state cannot prosecute a federal officer UNLESS that officer is charged with a federal crime." We've seen that one, or a close variant, at least half a dozen times.

It is true that a non-cooperative FBI, and a lack of federal charges, makes things more difficult. But we think that Maulen"who, in fairness, did not have some information that we now have, like the second video"was guilty of a bit of overreach. Actually, a lot of overreach. We suspect that for the "average" case, Maulen was right on target. But the video evidence, not to mention the enormous amount of attention being paid to the shooting of Renee Good, makes this FAR from an "average" case.

At this point, let us remind readers of a lesson that Donald Trump has taught everyone, over and over, and that Maulen should have allowed for this in his remarks: Sometimes people pursue lawsuits to send a message, whether or not they think they can win. And Ross (and the administration) may have drawn the least desirable foe imaginable on this front: Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty. When she was elected, her platform was... that law enforcement personnel need to be held accountable when they overreach. So, this is right in her wheelhouse, to say the least. Moriarty has already announced that her office will be conducting its own investigation, even if the FBI is not cooperating. She has asked the public to come forward with videos or any other relevant evidence they might have to offer.