FBI blocks Minnesota law enforcement from Alex Pretti evidence

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.”

“The BCA reiterated the request to receive information, access to evidence, and cooperation in the Jan. 7 shooting death of Renee Good and the Jan. 14 shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis,” Evans said. “It remains unclear if there will be any cooperation or sharing of information related to those two shootings.”

Sosa-Celis was shot in the leg last month by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. The Trump administration accused Sosa-Celis and two other men of attacking the agents and filed assault charges against Sosa-Celis the day after he was shot.

Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, said last week that two officers had been placed on leave after the Justice Department’s case against Sosa-Celis unraveled in court amid conflicting accounts of the events leading up to the shooting. ICE and the Justice Department have opened a joint criminal investigation into the officers involved in the shooting, according to Lyons.

Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, was deployed to Minneapolis amid nationwide outrage over the killings of Pretti and Good. Last week, Homan announced the end of Trump’s mass immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota and the drawdown of federal immigration officers in Minneapolis.