The Trump administration has for the third time blocked Minnesota law enforcement from accessing evidence and information in FBI investigations of federal shootings in Minneapolis.
The FBI barred Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the top law enforcement agency in the state, from accessing key evidence gathered by the bureau in its investigation into the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti on Jan. 24, according to a statement from BCA Superintendent Drew Evans.
The federal government has repeatedly bucked requests from the BCA for shared investigations into the killing of Pretti and Renee Good and the shooting of a Venezuelan national by federal immigration officers in the city.
“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,” Evans said on Sunday.
Pretti was shot to death by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis last month. Minnesota state officials were granted a temporary restraining order to prevent U.S. officials from “destroying or altering” evidence related to the shooting.
Minnesota officials had alleged that federal investigators denied them access to the scene after Pretti was killed. The BCA’s Force Investigations Unit, which typically leads inquiries into use-of-force incidents involving law enforcement officers, was also blocked from investigating the killing of Renee Good, the woman slain by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent last month in Minneapolis.
But that order was lifted on Feb. 2 after U.S. District Court Judge Eric Tostrud, a Trump appointee, determined that the federal agents conducting the investigation of Pretti’s killing were “not likely to destroy or improperly alter evidence.”








