Viral AI images spur false claims about ICE agent in fatal Minneapolis shooting

After bystanders captured video of a masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shooting a woman in Minneapolis, social media users rushed to identify the officer.

"Please help identify this man in connection with the execution of a woman in Minneapolis today at the hands of ICE agents," read a Jan. 7 Facebook post that showed a man in the shooter’s same tactical gear, but with his face unobstructed by a mask. "Call Minneapolis Police immediately."

In the image, the man holds a phone in one hand and points with the other. His uniform reads, "Police, federal agent." Other versions of the image shared on social media showed the man smiling, or with both hands on the phone.

But these aren’t real photos. They were altered from frames in one bystander’s video that was published by the Minnesota Reformer. In the video, the agent kept his face covered. 

On Jan. 7, ICE agents approached the vehicle of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen. She started to drive away when an agent fatally shot her at close range.

Several news outlets, including the Minnesota Star Tribune, have identified the agent who fired his gun as Jonathan Ross. Although federal officials have not confirmed his identity, both Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Vice President JD Vance said in separate speaking events that the agent involved in the Jan. 7 shooting had been previously dragged by a car in June. The details Vance described lined up with those in a federal court filing that named the officer as Jonathan Ross.

Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in an email to PolitiFact, "We are not going to expose the name of this officer. He acted according to his training."

(Screenshots from X, Facebook)

But on social media, people shared posts falsely identifying the ICE agent as "Steven Grove" or "Steve Grove." There is a real person named Steven Grove who resembles the unmasked person in the AI-generated images. He owns Sigwo Arms, a gun shop in Springfield, Missouri, but he told PolitiFact he has never even been to Minnesota and has nothing to do with the incident.

Grove told PolitiFact in an email that he is based in Springfield, does not work for ICE, and retired from the Army National Guard in 2023 after serving for 23 years. Grove told the Springfield Daily Citizen that he was either in his Springfield shop or at home on Jan. 7, when the Minneapolis shooting unfolded.

Still, Grove said, the social media speculation about his involvement came with a cost: Meta removed Grove’s personal Facebook account and when he appealed that decision, the platform quickly denied that appeal. Grove posted about the experience on his business’s Facebook page.

"It’s gonna be a long day," he wrote.

Steve Grove is also the name of the Minnesota Star Tribune’s CEO and publisher. In a Jan. 8 X post that did not use Grove’s name, the news outlet said, "To be clear, the ICE agent has no known affiliation with the Star Tribune."

It is unclear precisely what accounts first shared the viral images originated, but on X, users asked the AI chatbot Grok to remove the man’s mask from images they uploaded. Grok fulfilled such requests and filled in part of the man’s face, but the AI creations are fictional.

These images don’t show the unmasked ICE agent who shot a woman in Minneapolis. We rate claims that they do Pants on Fire!

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.