Billionaire hedge fund investor Bill Ackman is believed to have donated $10,000 toward a fundraising effort to support ICE agent Jonathan Ross, the officer who shot and killed Renee Nicole Good. William Ackman is listed as the largest contributor to a GoFundMe campaign supporting Ross, which has already collected over $160,000.
Ackman also shared the fundraiser on X. Ross has been at the center of intense controversy since Wednesday, after he shot 37-year-old Good three times in the face during a Minneapolis protest after she refused to get out of her vehicle. ICE claimed the situation escalated when she tried to drive her burgundy SUV toward Ross, sparking the confrontation.
Showing His Support
Her death immediately set off a storm of anger, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey openly dismissing ICE's account of what happened as "bulls***." In response, a GoFundMe launched for Good — a poet who had trained to actively resist ICE — surged past $1.5 million in donations in just two days.
Meanwhile, Clyde Emmons, who organized the fundraiser for Ross, branded Good a "domestic terrorist" and insisted the agent's actions were "1,000 percent justified."
"Funds will go to help pay for any legal services this officer needs," Emmons, who is based in Michigan, wrote.
"I am currently in contact with his father and awaiting the officer's response so I can send him the link to hand this over to him personally."
Ackman has a history of backing high-profile causes. In the past, he donated $99,999 to a GoFundMe for the so-called Bondi Beach hero and later honored him with a large gold menorah at an upscale New York dinner that reportedly cost $1,000 per guest.
Syrian refugee Ahmed Al-Ahmed was shot five times on December 14 while trying to stop an armed attacker during a Hanukkah celebration in an Australian suburb.
"[Jews] are 0.2 per cent of the world. So seeing someone step forward on behalf of people he didn't know, to risk his own life, and the calculus of going after a guy with a gun, it's really one of the great acts of heroism," Ackman, who is Jewish, told the crowd.
"I think it was very reaffirming to the Jewish community to have someone stand up on behalf of our community in the most profound, life‑affirming way. That's why we were here," he added.
His Big MAGA Inclination
Ackman, who founded and runs Pershing Square Capital Management, had long been a major donor to Democratic causes before publicly throwing his support behind Donald Trump during the 2024 campaign. Trump and his administration have since backed Ross's claim that he was acting in self-defense when he shot Good.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem echoed that stance, calling Good's actions "an act of domestic terrorism" and standing firmly behind the officer's decision to use deadly force.
"An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively, shot to protect himself and the people around him," she said.
Supporters of Ross, including a senior Department of Homeland Security official, have said he felt he was in real danger — worried not just for himself, but for the safety of other officers and the public — when things escalated during the encounter.
On the day Good was killed, people who were there said she and her wife were acting as legal observers and filming what was happening at the protest.
Video from the scene shows agents repeatedly telling Good to get out of her car. Instead, she put her vehicle in reverse and appeared to try to drive away. At one point, her SUV was blocking the road until officers ordered her to move.
Then she backed up again and began to head down the street. As one agent reached for the driver's side door and moments before she drove off, shots were fired.
At that moment, Good's SUV appeared to veer out of control and slammed into parked cars and a light pole at high speed. Witnesses later noticed a bullet hole in the driver's side windshield of her vehicle.
Good grew up in Colorado Springs and was a registered voter, though there's no public record showing her political party.
She had been married before to a comedian named Timothy Macklin, who died in 2023. At the time of her death, she was living in Minneapolis with her partner, whose name hasn't been publicly shared.
Ross is an Iraq War veteran and has worked as an immigration agent for many years. He and his wife, who is an immigrant from the Philippines, have a child together.
After Good's death, state and local leaders called for ICE to leave Minnesota — but Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made it clear that federal agents would remain. A federal investigation is ongoing.
