JD Vance may have landed ICE agent in boiling water with 'utterly ignorant' remark: expert

Vice President JD Vance's statement about why ICE agent Jonathan Ross fired three fatal shots, killing mother-of-three Renee Good in Minneapolis, was "utterly ignorant" and could be problematic, a legal analyst said Thursday.

Former federal prosecutor Shanlon Wu described why the agent's "objectively reasonable" argument might not hold up after Vance's comments in the wake of Good's killing and his argument that Ross had survived getting dragged by a vehicle — something he testified to and was widely reported.

"Vance is kind of clumsily flagging for everybody that this might make it a bad shooting because the guy's not actually reacting to what's in front of him but reacting to something that happened in the past," Wu explained. "Being a little sensitive is not the legal standard here at all."

Vance was sharing the story about Ross, using his anger to attack anyone asking about the fatal shooting. But Wu pointed out that mainstream media was trying to figure out what happened, and how, by going on the defensive, Vance revealed more about the justifications for Ross firing the shots at Good.

"Vance tried to justify an ICE shooting by pointing to something that happened months earlier," Wu wrote in a post on X. "That excuse makes the shooting worse."

"Vance's statement could indicate that Ross was acting in response to his own PTSD, not deadly force, which is judged by what is happening in the moment. Reacting to the past instead of reality is not a reasonable force. It is unlawful. Excuses are being built before an investigation even exists," Wu wrote.