Walz: Trump administration pulled back from joint investigation into killing of Good, Pretti after leak

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said the state and federal government were close last week to announcing a joint investigation into the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, but the Trump administration appeared to pull back after the Minnesota Star Tribune reported an agreement was imminent.

The DFL governor said at a news conference on Feb. 12 that he believes the Trump administration understands there must be a joint investigation into the fatal shootings of the two Minnesotans by federal agents. And Walz said he still expects that there will be one.

“As I know right now, I think we’re very close,” Walz said. “We’re only asking for what’s always been done. We’re only asking for the right thing. … Justice needs to be served.”

Last week, people familiar with the effort to repair relationships between the federal and state government told the Star Tribune the announcement of a joint investigation between the FBI and BCA into the killing of Pretti was imminent. However, that has not materialized.

Walz said there’s a “contingent” within the FBI and federal government that understands the best way to investigate the fatal shootings is jointly with the state. The framework for a joint investigation is in place, he said.

“It’s just a matter of them feeling like they have an upper hand to announce it.”

The Star Tribune reached out to the White House and Justice Department seeking comment on what happened with the agreement but has not received a response.

On Thursday morning, White House border czar Tom Homan announced the effective end of the operation that sent 3,000 federal agents into Minnesota. The killings of Good and Pretti on the streets of south Minneapolis were flash points that ignited global scrutiny of how immigration enforcement was being carried out in Minnesota.

Drew Evans, the head of the BCA, told the Star Tribune on Wednesday that he hadn’t heard from the FBI this week, but that the agency had lawyers in town and any updates would be provided publicly. Last Friday, the BCA issued a news release saying the two agencies continued to look for a “path forward” on a joint investigation of the killing of Pretti, but nothing had been finalized.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has previously said the federal government was not investigating ICE agent Jonathan Ross for shooting and killing Good.

“The Department of Justice, our civil rights unit, we don’t just go out and investigate every time an officer is forced to defend himself against somebody putting his life in danger,” Blanche said. “We never do.”

The names of the agents who killed Pretti have not been released publicly. Ross’ name was first reported by the Star Tribune.

The lack of a federal investigation into the deaths has been viewed as one of the primary catalysts for an exodus of prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota under Daniel Rosen’s leadership. That exodus has left the office unable to carry out routine casework amid a flood of court filings.

“We need what’s left of a decimated U.S. Attorney’s Office here to get back to the work of stopping drug trafficking, stopping crime that’s there, helping us on fraud investigations and then getting us this investigation,” Walz said.

The killings of Good and Pretti, and the subsequent lack of a joint investigation, were at the center of a U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

Ellison told members of the committee that state officials have been denied access to “critical evidence” in the fatal shooting of Good.

That evidence includes Good’s car and gun shell casing, “critical, important information” Ellison said would be needed to conduct an investigation.

When asked to describe the cooperation between the state, DHS and the U.S. Department of Justice, Ellison said, “We haven’t had any cooperation up until now, which is really unusual.”

Republican U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky asked Trump’s immigration leaders about video leading up to the fatal shooting of Pretti, questioning whether it was appropriate for federal agents to shove a woman to the ground before the shooting.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said he couldn’t answer the question because the video didn’t show everything that led up to the encounter, and that an investigation was ongoing. Paul and Democratic Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan asked whether, generally, it’s OK to shove a woman to the ground if an officer was being yelled at.

“If the only action is verbal, no,” Scott said.

Paul added: “No one in America believes shoving that woman’s head and face in the snow was de-escalation.”

Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan grilled Lyons at the hearing on whether Noem and White House senior adviser Stephen Miller may have biased the investigation into Good and Pretti’s fatal shootings by calling them “domestic terrorists.”

“I don’t want to comment on what comments they made; it’s their comments,” Lyons responded. “But again, I don’t want to put my finger on the scales of the investigation.”

While a joint investigation into the killings remains uncertain, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, alongside the Attorney General’s Office and the BCA, has opened independent state investigations into the killings and would have authority to charge the agents involved in the killings in state court if the available evidence shows a crime was committed.

Earlier this month, state prosecutors formally demanded that the Trump administration turn over any evidence gathered by federal authorities after Good’s killing.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement Thursday, “We continue our efforts to investigate multiple actions by federal agents during this occupation. This office will be deliberate, and we will not waver.”