| “ | Open your eyes, Luke. If I hadn't started and killed Ramos, you'd already be dead, so you're welcome for that. | ” |
— Grant to Alvez
| ||
Jeremy Grant is a copycat of Eduardo Ramos, one-time cop killer, and serial-turned-spree killer who appears in the Criminal Minds Season Fourteen episode "Luke".
Background
Five years prior to the episode, Grant, along with Luke Alvez, Phil Brooks, and Manny Silva, were assigned at a man search to locate and arrest Eduardo Ramos, a prominent drug lord operating in Mexico. Grant was stationed atop a roof as a sniper during the arrest. While Grant, along with Silva, believes that Ramos deserved death, Brooks and Alvez disagreed, Brooks noting that "we're not above the law." While the agents on land were ambushed, Grant quickly reacted, shooting both of the assailants, while Ramos attempted to escape. With Alvez chasing Ramos, Grant insisted that he had the shot to kill Ramos. However, Luke was determined to capture Ramos alive and allow his victims' families proper justice for his transgressions. In the end, Alvez tackled Ramos to the ground, and Ramos was quickly incarcerated henceforth. Grant, still atop the roof, was disgruntled that Alvez disallowed him from shooting Ramos to death.
Ramos remained in prison for three years and soon broke out of prison. While Alvez, the FBI, and DEA believed Ramos would begin on a mission to target cartel members that led to his arrest, Ramos actually targeted members of the task force that assisted in his capture instead. After the mission leading to the capture of Ramos, Alvez, Brooks, and the rest of the DEA team lost touch with Grant. However, Grant, his wife, and his two daughters still lived in Mexico, in very close proximity to Ramos.
Although Ramos had been apprehended three years before, he acquired a list of those who arrested them. Knowing that Grant lived the closest, he planned an assault on his family. On August 8, 2018, at 9:29 p.m., while Grant was on assignment overseas, his wife and two daughters were murdered by Ramos in their home. Ramos forced them to drink bleach before shooting them twice each in the back of the head with a .40-caliber pistol. Grant later came home and discovered the bodies. He was them placed on mandatory bereavement following these events. These events caused Grant to psychologically break, compelling him to seek and murder all members of the cartel, as a revenge for the slaughtering of his family.
Luke
“No, you get to live. Same way I do, tortured by the knowledge that your decisions got that one person you love most killed. [...] Should have let me take the shot, Alvez”.
Following the murders of the first three victims, Grant breaks into the house of Paul McEntee, takes McEntee into his panic room inside his closet, binds him, and pours bleach down his throat. Despite his pleas to make his death quick, Grant tortures McEntee and shoots him with a .40-caliber pistol, consistent with the first three murders. While investigating the crime scene, JJ and Simmons notice the cold and calculated nature of the crimes, rather than a psychotic vigilante seeking to teach their victims a lesson. Noticing the pattern of the chemical bleach, Alvez connects these murders to similar drug-related murders in Mexico. Grant is later seen blitz attacking his fourth victim, Mike Everson, in his workplace of a garage. Grant forces Everson to pray after pouring bleach down his throat, then promptly murders him. Elsewhere, assuming Grant's current murders were connected with Ramos, Brooks and Alvez learn from an officer in Mexico that Ramos was recently killed, in the same mannerisms as the most recent victims and Ramos' murders. At the scene, Reid and Alvez learn that although the unsub isn't Ramos, someone is still punishing members of the cartel. They also find a mixture of chewing tobacco and saliva next to the spatter of blood at the murder scene. Alvez recognizes that Grant frequently chewed tobacco and connects the murders.
Learning of the events of the murders of Grant's family, the BAU compiles a list of potential victims connected to the cartel. Alvez calls Manny in Mexico to identify Grant as the perpetrator, only to have Grant answer instead. Grant taunts Alvez, saying that if he hadn't killed Ramos, Alvez would have been his first target. While Alvez assures Grant that the way of justice doesn't involve killing suspects, Grant agrees with Manny's previous position during the arrest, claiming that the order that Alvez gave him to arrest Ramos caused the murders of his family. Grant then explains to Alvez that he plans on taking out not everyone connected to the cartel, but rather everyone that "ratted out Ramos" and everyone "involved in the takedown". When Alvez asks whether or not this involves him, Grant recants by saying Alvez gets to live the same way Grant does; without someone they significantly love. Hanging up the phone, Alvez takes off for his home, attempting to protect his girlfriend, Lisa Douglas.
Arriving at the home of Douglas and Alvez, he learns that Douglas wasn't the target; but rather Phil Brooks, Alvez' partner (who also assisted in the takedown of Ramos). Grant, entering the home of Brooks, taunts him after torturing him the same way as the previous victims and proceeds to shoot him twice in the head. Alvez then finds the body of Brooks, and although he was officially taken off the case, he takes matters into his own hands, attempting to serve justice for the murder of his partner. Grant, after murdering Brooks, goes through a man that Brooks and Alvez planned on using to create a fake identity and leave the country. Alvez, along with the rest of the team, understands that Grant plans to go undercover and hide from law enforcement, and "smuggle" himself out of the country. Alvez learned that Grant is heading to the port in Baltimore. Alvez quickly meets him there. After being spotted and drawing his gun, Alvez responds fire, only for Grant to reveal his bulletproof vest. While Grant attempts to escape, Alvez is able to catch up and tackle him, holding him at gunpoint, the same way he held Ramos years previously. By this time, Simmons and Prentiss have appeared on the scene, and Prentiss is able to talk Alvez down. Grant is then incarcerated for the murders.
Modus Operandi
Grant, after the death of his family, began targeting people involved in and surrounding the capture of Eduardo Ramos, the drug lord operating out of Mexico. He killed his victims in the same way that Ramos killed his victims, and, more specifically, Grant's family. Grant would pour bleach down the throats of his victims before killing them to torture them. In the case of Mike Everson, he would also force Everson to pray before finally killing him, despite the fact that his mouth was scorched from the bleach that was poured. Grant would either break into or use a ruse to get inside the homes of his victims. In the case of Paul McEntee, he entered the panic room vested inside the bedroom closet of McEntire's home. In the case of most of the crimes, Grant cleaned up most of the crimes that he attempted. In the example of McEntee, there was nothing out of array in the bedroom.
This was a similar situation in Everson's murder, outside of the fact that some of the chewing tobacco Grant was using was left as residue at the scene of the crime. This was eventually what allowed Alvez and the BAU to tie the crimes committed to him. As the span of his crimes lengthened, Grant became more and more angry, and more focused on his goal. He was more inclined to kill without remorse, although that was already the case. Furthermore, he announced to Alvez the change of direction in his murder target, thus taunting Alvez. To Grant, this became more of a psychological game as much as the murders were real. Near his incarceration, his psychopathy showed through his toying with the BAU, and the contrast between his subtle value of his crimes in the beginning, to the extreme value of his crimes near his arrest.
Profile
No official profile of Grant was made by the BAU.
Real-Life Comparison
Grant appears to be primarily inspired by Christopher Dorner - Both were spree killers who had jobs in law enforcement agencies (the Los Angeles Police Department in Dorner's case, the Drug Enforcement Association in Grant's), were expert marksmen, had stressors related to their jobs and co-workers in some way (Dorner was fired for making false allegations against a superior for using excessive force; Grant wanted to kill a hitman while his colleagues captured him alive, and the hitman later murdered his family after escaping jail), they subsequently targeted law enforcement officials (at least one of whom was a former colleague), ambushed their victims before shooting them with a Glock pistol (though Dorner used other weapons too), and were apprehended after violent altercations with law enforcement (though Grant was captured alive, while Dorner killed himself).
Known Victims
- Unspecified dates: Presumably killed numerous prior victims during his time as a DEA sniper.
- 2018:
- September-October 2018, Sinaloa, Mexico: Eduardo Ramos (his family's killer)
- U.S.
- November 5: Rick Salazar
- November 6: Michael Williams
- November 7:
- Bethesda, Maryland: John Reynoso
- Arlington, Virginia: Paul McEntee
- November 8, Springfield, Virginia: Mike Everson
- November 9, Quantico, Virginia: Phil Brooks
Notes
- Grant may have been inspired by Jonny McHale ("True Night") - Both were revenge-based serial-turned-spree killers who faced a traumatic event involving the death of a loved one (McHale witnesses the death of his fiancée Vickie Wright, while Grant witnesses the death of his entire family), and both went on to target the groups of those who killed these loved ones (McHale targeted the 23rd Street Killers, Grant targeted the Sicario cartel.
- Jeremy Grant could be considered as an unsub who completed his goal since, as he said, was planning to let Luke Alvez alive with the guilt of indirectly causing the death of a loved one, which he did by murdering Phil Brooks. Also, Grant killed Ramos and the people involved in his arrest (except Manny Silva, probably because both of them wanted Ramos dead).
Appearances
Criminal Minds
Season Fourteen
- "Luke"
Season Fifteen
- "Face Off" (indirectly referenced)
Criminal Minds: Evolution
Season Two
- "Stars & Stripes" (photo shown)