The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent with Peoria ties who fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis last week had a GoFundMe page set up for him, with hundreds of thousands of dollars raised as of Tuesday.
Jonathan Ross, a 2001 graduate of Richwoods High School in Peoria, shot and killed Renee Good, 37, on Jan. 7 in the midst of immigration enforcement activity in Minneapolis.
A GoFundMe page set up in the name of Clyde Emmons had raised over $625,000 as of Tuesday afternoon, surpassing its original goal of $550,000. The goal on Tuesday had been raised to $800,000, with donations continuing to come in. Emmons said he created the page in response to fundraisers for Good.
“I feel that the officer that was 1000 percent justified in the shooting deserves to have a go fund me,” Emmons said in the GoFundMe post. “Funds will go to help him.”
Emmons said that he has been in contact with Ross’ father Ed, as well as the organizer of another fundraiser. However, he had yet to hear from Jonathan Ross as of Monday afternoon, according to the GoFundMe post.
GoFundMe reviewing fundraiser for Jonathan Ross
GoFundMe told USA TODAY that it has not verified this fundraiser or others stemming from the shooting, saying that its Terms of Service prevents fundraisers for people charged with violent crimes. As of Tuesday, Ross had not been charged with any crime.
“Our Trust & Safety team is currently reviewing all fundraisers related to the shooting in Minneapolis to ensure they are compliant with our Terms of Service,” GoFundMe told USA TODAY on Jan. 12. “We are also working to gather additional information from the organizer of this fundraiser.”
During the review process, the company wrote in a statement, all funds “remain safely held by our payment processors.” The GoFundMe remained active as of Tuesday afternoon.
Among the donations includes a $10,000 sum from billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who said in a post on Twitter that the situation was a “tragedy,” but that he believed in the principal that people are innocent until proven guilty.
“An officer doing his best to do his job, and a protester who likely did not intend to kill the officer but whose actions in a split second led to her death,” Ackman said. “Our country is stronger if we work together to resolve the complex issues that are tearing us apart.”
Who is Jonathan Ross?
Jonathan Ross is a 10-year veteran of ICE, serving on the agency’s Special Response Team operating out of St. Paul, Minnesota. He served in the Indiana National Guard before joining ICE, with a tour of duty in Iraq with the 138th Signal Battalion from 2004-05.
Ed Ross told the the Daily Mail that he “couldn’t be more proud” of him,” of his son calling him a “committed, conservative Christian, a tremendous father (and) a tremendous husband.” Ed Ross declined to speak to the Journal Star on Friday during a reporter’s brief visit to his North Pekin home.
Good, a 37-year-old native of Colorado, left behind her wife and three children – a 15-year-old, 12-year-old and 6-year-old. Her mother told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that she was a “loving, forgiving and affectionate” person and a “amazing human being.”
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: GoFundMe set up for ICE agent with Peoria ties who fatally shot woman
Reporting by Zach Roth, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
