Minnesota law enforcement officials sued the Trump administration Tuesday over its refusal to include them in investigations into the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and a third shooting by federal immigration officers.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty and Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans want a judge to force the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security to share evidence, as would typically happen in such cases.
“Instead of sharing information, federal authorities took exclusive possession of evidence that had been collected, and they denied Minnesota investigators access to key information,” the plaintiffs wrote in the complaint filed in federal court in Washington.
Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, was fatally shot Jan. 7 by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis. Several videos of the shooting indicate that Good was driving away, not toward, the officer, who stood in front of Good’s vehicle and shot her.
Despite that, top administration officials labeled Good a “domestic terrorist,” and Vice President JD Vance said federal officers were “protected by absolute immunity” — a comment he later walked back.
The BCA — the state’s primary investigative agency — began a joint investigation into Good’s killing with the FBI, but the FBI reversed course, informing the BCA that the investigation would be solely led by federal officials.
A week later, as outrage mounted over Good’s death and the administration’s immigration enforcement surge, a federal officer shot and wounded Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan citizen living in Minneapolis with his family. FBI and BCA agents initially worked together on that case, even conducting joint interviews, before the FBI again cut off collaboration, the plaintiffs contend.
Federal prosecutors initially charged Sosa with assaulting a federal officer before dropping that charge based on “newly discovered evidence” contradicting a federal officer’s sworn statement. Later in January, when a Customs and Border Protection officer killed ICU nurse Pretti — another 37-year-old U.S. citizen — the BCA proactively secured a signed judicial warrant to allow them access to materials needed to conduct their own investigation. Still, federal officials denied the agency access, saying the investigation would be led solely by the DHS. The DHS and the DOJ did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
Lisa Rubin is MS NOW's senior legal reporter and a former litigator. Recommended
