Minnesota officials say US government stopped sharing evidence on fatal ICE shootings

The federal government has stopped sharing evidence with Minnesota authorities who are investigating the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal officers during a violent anti-immigration, anti-protest crackdown in the state earlier this year, state officials said in recent court filings.Minnesota officials sued the Trump administration in March for access to materials they said they needed to independently investigate the shootings.The family of Good, 37, earlier this month sued over her death when she was shot by a federal officer with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as she drove her car away during a protest in January.Pretti, also 37, was shot dead in the street by a border patrol agent as he went to the assistance of a fellow protester on the icy city streets during fierce demonstrations against the crackdown. Both Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and ICE are under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security.The shootings of the two protesters, both US citizens, was a turning point in the government’s approach after weeks of violent action by ranks of militarized, masked federal immigration enforcement in Minneapolis, which local leaders called a siege, after months of similar mass operations in major cities.There were immediate disputes over the investigations into Good’s and later Pretti’s killings between state and federal authorities.The Trump administration has suggested that state prosecutors don’t have jurisdiction to investigate federal officers, while Minnesota officials have said they don’t trust the federal government to investigate itself.The state is still seeking the cell phones of the officers involved in both shootings and recordings of key interviews.State prosecutors announced in July that the federal government had begun turning over evidence in the cases, including police body camera video and hard drives containing statements. Hennepin county attorney Mary Moriarty said at the time that the state expected to receive “all the evidence.”But Minnesota investigators said in October court filings that the transfer of evidence stopped soon after the July announcement. Moriarty said the US attorney’s office for Minnesota, the state outpost of federal prosecutors, told her on 10 September that evidence sharing would be on pause indefinitely “in light of challenges with DC”, according to the documents, referring to Washington and the federal authorities.State prosecutors have again asked a judge to order federal agencies to hand over the evidence, arguing they “have identified no legal authority or rational basis justifying their obstruction of state criminal investigations”.In a reply filed on Tuesday, attorneys for the US justice department argued it is within their discretion to decline to share information with state authorities.Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota bureau of criminal apprehension, said in a legal declaration that federal authorities still have Good’s clothing, the cell phone of the officer who killed her and interview recordings that state authorities have never been able to view. Bystanders captured footage of the shooting death of Good in her car and Pretti on the street, in each case contradicting key parts of what the administration said prompted the killings. No criminal charges have been filed.Evans said the federal government also has not shared a recorded statement from an officer who shot Pretti, the firearms used by the officers, their phones, projectiles and casings.The Associated Press contributed reporting