More than $500,000 had been raised by midday Monday for a GoFundMe campaign set up to support Jonathan Ross, a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis last week, according to reporting by the Minnesota Star Tribune.
A second wave of fundraising has played out on GiveSendGo, a faith-based platform that has hosted multiple campaigns for Ross, including one that had raised more than $160,000 towards a $200,000 goal, the Star Tribune report said.
The fundraising totals have drawn renewed attention to the circumstances of the shooting and to how major platforms police campaigns connected to violent incidents, particularly where the beneficiary is linked to an ongoing investigation but has not been charged.
GoFundMe said its “Trust & Safety team is currently reviewing all fundraisers related to the shooting in Minneapolis to ensure they are compliant with our terms of service, (which) prohibit fundraisers that raise money for the legal defense of anyone formally charged with a violent crime. Any campaigns that violate this policy will be removed,” according to the Star Tribune report.
The same report noted that Ross had not been charged with a crime. It also said a Star Tribune inquiry had asked GoFundMe to clarify how its spokesperson’s reference to formal charges aligned with the wording of the platform’s terms.
On GiveSendGo, the company has previously framed its approach as a matter of due process. In 2023, GiveSendGo co-founder Heather Wilson said: “While other platforms deny individuals the chance to raise funds for a quality legal defense based on their agendas, we believe people are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.”
The Minnesota Star Tribune report said GiveSendGo has hosted fundraising efforts for people accused of homicide, including Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted in the murder of George Floyd.
The fundraising for Ross has also attracted high-profile donors and, with them, a fresh burst of political argument online. The Star Tribune report said activist investor Bill Ackman was among those who donated to the GoFundMe effort.
“I am big believer in our legal principal that one is innocent until proven guilty,” Ackman wrote on X after donating $10,000, according to the Star Tribune report. “The whole situation is a tragedy. 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 also said he had tried to donate to a GoFundMe for Good’s family but that it was closed by the time he attempted to contribute, according to the same report.
The fundraising surge follows the fatal shooting of Good during an incident in Minneapolis connected to immigration enforcement activity. CBS News reported that federal authorities have said Good was driving a vehicle that struck Ross and pinned him against another car, and that Ross then fired a single shot through the windscreen.
The US Department of Homeland Security has described Good’s vehicle as being “weaponized”, CBS reported, while noting that local officials have disputed that characterisation.
Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey said the department’s claim that Good “weaponised her vehicle” was “bulls**t”, CBS reported.
CBS reported that video released by federal authorities showed an ice scraper in Good’s hand and that the recording did not show Good speaking to agents before she entered her SUV. In the same report, Frey said: “It does not show her driving it like a weapon, and it does not show her posing a threat.”
The fatal shooting, and the competing interpretations of what the video shows, have become a focal point for broader arguments about immigration enforcement operations, the use of force by federal officers, and how quickly public narratives can harden before a full accounting of events.
CBS reported that federal authorities have described the encounter as unfolding when Ross and other agents approached Good near her vehicle. The report said federal officials argue Good’s vehicle struck Ross, but that Frey has challenged the idea that the available footage supports the claim she used her vehicle as a weapon.
The case is being investigated by the FBI, CBS reported.
In parallel, the Star Tribune report highlighted how fundraising has become part of the public contest over the incident. Supporters of Ross have argued online that he was performing his duties and reacted to a life-threatening situation, while others have expressed anger that large sums are being raised for a federal agent involved in the death of a woman whose family and supporters say she posed no lethal threat.
The fundraising for Good’s family has also been substantial. CBS reported that a separate GoFundMe for Good’s wife and young son had raised more than $1 million. The Star Tribune report, as carried by The Spokesman-Review, said the GoFundMe for Good’s wife and family wrapped up with more than $1.5 million collected.
CBS reported that Good’s father, speaking at a vigil, rejected the federal portrayal of his daughter. “Renee did not deserve this at all,” he said, according to CBS. “She wasn’t a threat. She wasn’t ‘weaponizing’ her car. She was in fear.”
CBS’s reporting described Good as a writer and poet, and said she had recently moved to Minneapolis with her wife and child. The Star Tribune report referenced a photograph showing a bullet hole in the windscreen of the SUV Good was driving when she was shot.
Ross has been described by CBS as an ICE agent assigned to a special response team. The report said he had previously been injured on duty and that federal officials have portrayed him as being pinned by a vehicle at the moment he fired.
The fundraising totals have raised questions about where support is coming from and what donors believe they are supporting. The Star Tribune report said the GoFundMe for Ross had exceeded $500,000 by midday Monday, while GiveSendGo hosted multiple campaigns with at least one exceeding $160,000.
Fundraising platforms say they must balance compassion for individuals involved in high-profile incidents with rules designed to prevent campaigns that finance violence or illegal conduct. In this case, the debate has turned on whether a campaign framed as general support or assistance with costs becomes, in practice, a legal defence fundraiser, and whether a platform should intervene before any charging decision is made.
The Star Tribune report said GoFundMe has removed campaigns in other cases where fundraisers were created for the legal defence of suspects accused of violent crimes, and that donors were refunded.
For now, the Ross campaigns remain a live example of how quickly money can pour in during polarising events, often faster than investigations can establish a full factual record. While federal authorities and Minneapolis officials continue to trade claims about what happened in the moments before the shot was fired, the fundraising itself has become part of the story, amplifying the clash between those who view Ross as an officer under attack and those who view Good as a civilian killed unjustifiably during a federal operation.
