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Evidence Turned Over
Minnesota prosecutors said the Trump administration turned over evidence long sought in their probe into the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti during protests against an immigration enforcement crackdown earlier this year.
“MINNEAPOLIS -- The Trump administration has turned over evidence long sought by Minnesota investigators in their ongoing probe into the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti during pitched protests against an immigration enforcement crackdown earlier this year, state prosecutors announced Monday”
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said the evidence included previously withheld hard drives containing statements, police body camera video and other materials in the Minnesota killings, and she said, "The wonderful thing now is we have all the evidence."
ABC7 New York reported that Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot and killed in her vehicle while leaving an anti-immigration enforcement protest in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, and that her death and Pretti’s death later sparked outrage and calls to rein in immigration enforcement.
The ABC7 New York report said the Minneapolis immigration crackdown, dubbed "Operation Metro Surge," was billed as the largest immigration enforcement operation ever and ended in February after thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents withdrew from the state.
In a separate Reuters report, Moriarty said the federal government handed over the "voluminous" evidence in the three shootings after six months of discussions, jurisdictional disputes and a lawsuit.
Competing Accounts
As Minnesota investigators sought evidence, multiple outlets described conflicting explanations for Alex Pretti’s death in Minneapolis on Jan. 24, with Trump officials calling him a "domestic terrorist" while video evidence was said to contradict the account.
Chequeado reported that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti was 'brandishing' a pistol and 'attacked' the officers, while it said videos verified and analyzed by U.S. media show Pretti holding a cellphone and being shot while restrained on the ground.
In the same Chequeado account, ABC News' John Cohen said, "There is nothing in the video evidence we've seen so far to support that [Pretti] arrived at that location with the intent to shoot those Border Patrol officers."
Clarin reported that Pretti’s parents denounced what they called a campaign of lies by the Trump administration and federal officials, saying, "The official account is repugnant and false," and they said their son was not carrying any weapon at the moment he was attacked.
Clarin also said the parents stated, "Alex had his phone in his right hand and his left hand empty, raised above his head," as he tried to protect a woman whom ICE agents had pushed to the ground.
What Comes Next
The evidence handover came as the legal fight over investigations continued, with ABC7 New York saying federal officials suggested state prosecutors don’t have jurisdiction to investigate federal officers and that prosecutors in Houston complained about withheld information in their investigation into a fatal shooting by an ICE officer last week.
“Alex Pretti was shot and killed by U”
ABC7 New York reported that documents filed in the lawsuit brought by state and local officials against the Homeland Security and Justice departments suggested the breakthrough came after federal officials asked the state in June for evidence gathered in the investigation of ICE agent Christian Castro.
In the Reuters report carried by Internazionale, Moriarty said the evidence was provided after discussions with Minnesota U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen’s office in Minneapolis and the FBI’s field office there, and she said, "We need cooperation. Our community needs it," and "Our democracy requires it."
Le Devoir reported that after the murders of Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, ICE arrests nationwide fell by an average of nearly 12%, and it said Tom Homan announced the withdrawal of ICE agents from the state on February 4.
Le Devoir also reported that the service averaged 7,369 weekly arrests nationwide in the five weeks after Homan’s announcement of staffing reductions, compared with 8,347 arrests per week during the five weeks prior, while the Trump administration insisted it targets the most dangerous criminals living illegally in the United States.
