Former New York Yankees star-turned politician Mark Teixeira insists he ‘stands by ICE’ after a mother-of-three was killed by a federal agent in Minneapolis this week.
Renee Nicole Good, 37, was shot dead while driving an SUV that was blocking a residential street during protests against an ICE operation on Wednesday, sparking outrage across the US.
The agent responsible, identified as Jonathan ‘Jon’ Ross, has been branded a ‘murderer’ by furious Democrats after the shooting, but President Trump’s administration argues that he acted in self-defense after it appeared Good planned to run him down with her car.
And Teixeira, who recently launched his campaign to run for Texas’ 21st Congressional District as a Republican, has leapt to Ross’ defense on social media.
The MLB great, 45, quoted a post from The White House on X which shared a message from Vice President JD Vance about ‘standing behind’ ICE officers and wrote: ‘I stand with ICE.’
The initial video of the incident that circulated online showed an officer approaching an SUV stopped in the middle of the road and trying to open the driver’s door.
Former New York Yankees star-turned politician Mark Teixeira insists he ‘stands by ICE’
Renee Nicole Good was named as the woman shot dead by ICE in Minneapolis on Wednesday
Seconds later, the car drove away and a different ICE officer standing in front of the car fired at least two shots toward the driver. The SUV appeared to knock the officer back but not down.
The car then sped into two cars parked on a curb nearby before crashing to a stop.
ICE said that Good deliberately drove her burgundy SUV at agents, something that was disputed by witnesses. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called that version of events ‘bulls**t’.
Teixeira is not the only sporting figure to defend Ross over the shooting, nevertheless, with ESPN star Stephen A. Smith claiming he was ‘completely justified’ from a legal standpoint.
However, Smith added that if the agent had enough time to step out the way, which he appeared to, he should have shot the tyres instead of taking aim directly at Good, who died behind the wheel of the car after she was shot three times in the face.
‘I saw the video on numerous occasions and seeing what transpired from a lawful perspective, as it pertains to a law enforcement official, don’t expect him to be prosecuted. He was completely justified,’ Smith said in a 25-minute video uploaded to his YouTube channel.
But the ESPN analyst continued: ‘From a humanitarian perspective, however, why did you have to do that? If you could move out the way, that means you could have shot the tyres. That means you could have got a few feet away after you shot the tyres and if you were unsuccessful at doing that you could have got her down the road.
The ICE agent who fatally shot Good in Minneapolis has been identified as Jonathan Ross
Ross shot the mother-of-three, 37, dead while she was driving an SUV during ICE protests
‘She wasn’t driving down the road, coming at you 90 miles an hour, she was parked in the middle of the street.
‘Rather than get out the car, she wrongfully tried to drive off. And wrongfully disregarded a law enforcement official because that it was ICE is and as a result, lost her life because of it.’
Teixeira played 14 seasons in the major leagues and is best known for his stint with the Yankees, the final stop of his career, after becoming a World Series champion and MVP candidate in New York.
The legendary hitter is now set to run for congress in a bid to ‘help defend President Trump’s America First Agenda’, with the congressional race slated for November 2026 and a primary scheduled for March.
