Federal authorities have told Minnesota investigators they won’t provide access to information on the fatal Jan. 24 shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
Formal notification from the FBI to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension came late last week after Gov. Tim Walz signaled optimism that there might still be a joint investigation by state and federal authorities.
“While this lack of cooperation is concerning and unprecedented, the BCA is committed to thorough, independent and transparent investigations of these incidents, even if hampered by a lack of access to key information and evidence,” BCA Superintendent Drew Evans said in a news release. “Our agency has committed to the FBI and Department of Justice that should its stance change we remain willing to share information that we have obtained with that agency and would welcome a joint investigation.”
Other shootings
Typically, the BCA participates in investigations of law enforcement shootings in Minnesota. But after two shootings during a surge of federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota in January, the U.S. Department of Justice has excluded local participation.
Federal agents shot Pretti, 37, last month as protestors confronted an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis. Two weeks before that, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot 37-year-old Renee Good, also in Minneapolis.
The BCA said it had reiterated a request for information on Good’s shooting and the Jan. 14 shooting that injured Julio Sosa-Celis, a 24-year-old Venezuelan man, during an enforcement operation in north Minneapolis. In the Sosa-Celis case, federal authorities announced an investigation into two immigration officers involved in that shooting after they appeared to have made untruthful statements under oath.
Evans said his agency would continue to investigate the incidents and continue to “pursue all legal avenues to gain access to relevant information and evidence.” The BCA will eventually present its findings to prosecutors for review.
Hennepin County attorney seeks evidence
In response to the federal government’s lack of cooperation, local leaders launched their own investigations last month. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty asked residents to start submitting evidence after Good’s shooting.
In early February, Moriarty submitted a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of ICE and U.S. Border Patrol, officially demanding evidence in the Good case. The “Touhy” letters, formal requests for evidence, set a Feb. 17 deadline.
Moriarty said she also planned to submit similar letters to the FBI on the Pretti case this week. As of Monday, there had been no response from federal authorities on the Good case.
“The federal government’s refusal to cooperate is unsurprising but provides a clear indication that they are not confident in their agents’ actions or their immediate response,” she said in a statement.
Without federal cooperation on the shooting investigations, it may prove difficult for local prosecutors to arrive at a charging decision. Federal investigators first prevented local authorities from accessing information and evidence in the Pretti shooting in January. Their response to the BCA on Feb. 13 was a formal notification.
At a news conference on Feb. 12, Walz said he believed it was possible the state would get cooperation from the Trump administration on an investigation, but that leaked information on talks between the FBI and BCA interfered with the negotiations.
“We were very close,” he said at the time. “I think obviously there’s a contingent inside the FBI and the federal government that understands the only way you do these is through a joint investigation.”
Civil rights investigation
The U.S. Department of Justice is not cooperating with local authorities on the Pretti investigation, but did announce late last month that it was investigating whether federal agents had violated his civil rights. The DOJ is not opening a similar investigation into Good’s shooting, the Associated Press reported.
Major federal immigration enforcement operations appear to be ending in Minnesota.
Federal authorities on Thursday said they’d begin a drawdown of “Operation Metro Surge,” which brought more than 3,000 immigration agents to the Twin Cities in what the Department of Homeland Security described as the largest immigration crackdown in history.
White House border czar Tom Homan said the federal government had achieved its goals in Minnesota and would scale back operations to pre-surge levels.
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