Federal authorities finally handed over long-withheld evidence in the fatal shootings of two Minnesotans by immigration officers—proving the system only yields accountability when forced to the bargaining table.
For six months, the FBI stonewalled local prosecutors investigating the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, withholding body camera footage, witness statements, and even Good's bullet-riddled SUV. The feds only cooperated when they needed something from the state, exposing how federal power shields its own at the expense of justice for ordinary Americans.
Good, an unarmed 37-year-old mother of three, was shot in the head and killed in her car by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on Jan. 7 while leaving a protest in Minneapolis. Weeks later, on Jan. 24, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, was shot dead by Customs and Border Protection officials. No one has been charged in either death.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced Monday that her office finally obtained the hard drives of previously withheld evidence, along with Good's damaged vehicle. "The wonderful thing now is we have all the evidence," Moriarty said. She noted that any time the government is responsible for taking the life of a community member, a full investigation is required. "Our democracy requires it," she added.
But that democracy was denied for half a year. Minnesota authorities had been demanding the evidence since January. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said he remains "deeply troubled that the federal government spent more than half a year attempting to conceal this evidence from state investigators." Earlier this year, the FBI flat-out refused to share evidence, and the federal government suggested state prosecutors lacked jurisdiction to investigate federal officers.
So what changed? According to PBS News, the breakthrough came after federal officials asked the state in June for evidence gathered in the investigation of ICE agent Christian Castro. Castro was charged with assault and falsely reporting a crime in the nonfatal shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis. State and local prosecutors told the feds they would hand over their evidence only when the federal government agreed to cooperate. At the end of June, Ellison and Moriarty asked a federal judge to push back deadlines in their lawsuit against the DOJ because of "ongoing discussions" with the FBI. The federal government signed onto the motion.
PBS framed the evidence transfer as a routine administrative turnover from the "Trump administration," while The Guardian and NBC News highlighted the FBI's previous refusal to share evidence and the legal pressure mounted by state officials. The reality is simpler: the federal government didn't voluntarily comply with a local investigation into officers who killed American citizens. They traded evidence to protect their own case.
If it takes a federal lawsuit and a bargaining chip just to get body cam footage of federal officers shooting unarmed Americans, the system isn't built for accountability—it's built for self-preservation.
