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Donald Trump’s administration has claimed many times a federal official Renee Goode shot to death in Minnesota makes sense, claims 37 years old, mother of three children was a “violent rioter” who intentionally rammed his car into agents and committed an act of “domestic terrorism.”
The officer, Jonathan Ross, feared for his life and fired three shots, according to government officials.
But the previous Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officers Police misconduct experts cast doubt on government insistence that deadly force was justified the officer’s conduct.
“Law enforcement policy should always be to use the least amount of force and protect people’s lives,” said Diane Goldstein, a former police lieutenant and executive director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership. Tell USA Today.
She said the video showed “a lack of supervision, a lack of training and a lack of understanding of what other strategies could be put in place to mitigate situations like this”.
Video analysis of footage and footage taken by several witnesses From Ross himself, The man used one hand to film his interaction with Goode and her partner, while using the other hand he grabbed a gun and shot her. In the video, masked ICE officers approach a Honda Pilot in the middle of a residential street.
Ross can be seen getting out of the car and opening the door as he approaches Goode. Her partner walked around Goode’s car, filming Rose. Meanwhile, another vehicle pulled up to the scene to the left of Goode’s car and two police officers got out and approached her while she was in the driver’s seat.
An officer can be heard saying “get out of the damn car,” as an agent puts his hand on the driver’s side window opening and pulls the outside handle.
At the same time, Goode’s car backed up slightly, then pulled forward and began to turn to the right. Ross walked in front of her car as her car moved forward and swerved slightly to go around another SUV to her right.
As her car moved forward and began to turn, Ross fired three shots. Her car accelerated and hit a parked car on the street.
“I didn’t hear anybody (say) ‘Hey, police!'” Retired ICE agent Eric Bartlett told CBS News.
“What you’re looking at is easily identifiable as four ICE officers. They’re all going through more or less the same set of valid facts, the same factual stimulus,” said Robert Bennett, a senior attorney for police misconduct in the Minneapolis area. Tell Mother Jones.
“But only one officer drew his weapon after seeing this. None of the other officers did. That’s a bad fact [for Ross],” he said.
Bartlett also said he didn’t understand why an officer on foot would “stand in front of a moving, operating or occupied vehicle.”
“If that person decides to run away, you almost trigger a shooting,” he told USA Today. “If someone is running away, that doesn’t justify the use of deadly force. The threshold becomes: Is your life in imminent danger, or is someone else’s life in imminent danger?”
In a major decision last year, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected the justification for a Texas police officer’s fatal shooting of a man after he blindly fired two shots into his car as he drove away.
The justices rejected arguments that focus on “the moment when the threat occurs” rather than the “totality of the circumstances,” a standard the court said should apply in use-of-force cases.
“It was a shooting and the officer was walking around the car; [lunged and jumped onto the door sill]and put themselves at risk. You can’t guide yourself into a bad situation [to] The use of force is permitted,” Bennett told Mother Jones.
Justice Department policy prohibits police from shooting into a moving vehicle unless “no other objectively reasonable means of defense appears to exist, including moving out of the path of the vehicle.”
The Department of Homeland Security’s use-of-force policy similarly states that shooting at a driver is “prohibited” unless “there is reasonable cause to believe that the subject of the use of force will create an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury.”
Under federal guidelines, the use of deadly force is prohibited only when attempting to stop a vehicle.
Bartlett also noted that it’s not uncommon for police to encounter demonstrators. It’s also legal to film and berate them, something Trump administration officials have called an “attack” that endangers them.
“I hate to say it, but you have to cut through the noise,” Ballett said. “You have to focus on your goals.”
Vice President J.D. Vance also falsely claimed that Ross was “absolutely immune” from prosecution if state or local law enforcement launched a criminal investigation.
“The idea that federal agents have absolute immunity for crimes they commit on the job is absolutely ridiculous,” said Michael J. Z. Manheimer, a constitutional law expert at Northern Kentucky University’s Salmon P. Chase School of Law. told CNN.
While the state of Minnesota could bring charges against the officer, he could seek to have the case moved to federal court and argue that he is immune from prosecution. To prevail in a potential case, the state would have to prove that his conduct exceeded the scope of his official duties, was objectively unreasonable, or was manifestly illegal.
Federal prosecutors can bring charges but would need to prove that the officer knew his actions were illegal or that he acted in reckless disregard of constitutional limits on his power. But the Trump administration has shown no interest in pursuing lawsuits against law enforcement.
Federal officials are also generally immune from civil lawsuits unless they are proven to have violated constitutional rights.
The FBI is investigating the shooting and has reportedly excluded local law enforcement and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension from the case.
“I can’t explain why the Trump administration did what it did or said,” Hennepin County Prosecutor Mary Moriarty told reporters on Friday. “I can say that ICE officers don’t have complete immunity here.”