Fake photo allegedly showing unmasked ICE agent who shot Renee Nicole Good spreads online

Images circulating online in early January 2026 claimed to reveal the identity of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7.

The agent shot Good in her vehicle while she appeared to be leaving the scene of an ICE operation in a Minneapolis neighborhood. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security later asserted she was a "domestic terrorist" who "weaponized her vehicle against law enforcement," though the video evidence did not appear to support the agency's claim.  

The ICE agent who fired the gun was wearing a mask in footage of the shooting, but a slew of users on the social media platform X (archived, archived, archived) claimed to have found a photo of the man with his mask removed. The purported photo spread on social media as people looked for more information about the agent.  

May this man never know a day of peace. pic.twitter.com/cVtcoRc7nM

— HOT GIRL CAP ⍟ (@SAMTH33STALLION) January 7, 2026

The image shared on social media, and others like it, did not authentically depict the ICE agent who shot Good. They were altered using Grok, X's artificial intelligence assistant, which allowed users to manipulate a frame from video footage of the agent and replace his mask with an AI-generated likeness.  

Verified public information about the ICE agent was not available as of this writing, but multiple news outlets identified him as Jonathan Ross, who was involved in another vehicular incident in June 2025. 

In an email to Snopes, the Department of Homeland Security, the federal agency that oversees ICE, declined to name the agent but confirmed that he had served as an ICE deportation officer for more than 10 years. ICE had not responded to Snopes' inquiries as of this writing. 

On Jan. 7, 2026, Minnesota reporter Max Nesterak posted a video (archived) of the shooting on X. The image of the agent originated at the 58-second mark. 

A search of X revealed multiple instances of users using Grok prompts (archived), such as "remove his mask," on a screenshot from the video taken at the timestamp listed above to generate an image similar (archived) to the ones being shared online. The images shared online did not match the agent's appearance in the video, further proving they're fake.

Other users continued the trend, possibly referencing other recent Grok controversies about its use in the sexual harassment of women and spread of child sexual abuse material. 

For instance, one thread featured an image of the same ICE agent modified by Grok, at the request of users, to depict him in a Nazi uniform (archived), as well as standing at the gates of Auschwitz (archived) and doing so in a string bikini (archived). Like the other images of the agent without his mask on, these were fake. 

A search of the terms "@grok," "mask" and "remove" showcased even more results of users attempting to do the same thing. 

Other examples of users asking Grok to remove masks from photographs on X are easily searchable on the platform, such as this post (archived) from Jan. 3, 2026.