Feds enter ‘evidence sharing’ agreement with Minnesota and hand over ICE shooting hard drives

The federal government will hand over evidence to Minnesota law enforcement from three January officer-involved shootings that caused uproar over the Trump administration’s deportation strategy.

The announcement comes six months after two U.S. citizens, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, died after being shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. Also in January, an ICE officer allegedly shot Venezuelan national Julio Sosa-Celis in the leg after firing through the wall of a house he was in. Prosecutors charged Christian Castro, the federal agent involved in the Sosa-Celis incident, though the officers in the Pretti and Good shootings remain under investigation.

“I want to thank our federal partners for their willingness to consider changing course to share evidence and promote public trust,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said at a Monday press conference.

Minnesota officials have complained about alleged federal obstruction since January. Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans called the FBI’s refusal to share evidence in Pretti’s death “concerning and unprecedented” in a February statement. He added that his agency would pursue “all legal avenues to gain access to relevant” evidence.

Yet the relationship between federal and Minnesota law enforcement agencies seems to have thawed in the months since the shootings made national headlines.

“Through the cooperation of our federal partners, we have obtained the hard drives of previously withheld evidence in the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and the shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis,” Moriarty said. “We have also obtained some of the physical evidence that was previously withheld, including Renee Good’s car.”

Good’s car became a centerpiece of her January death. ICE claims that its officers acted in self-defense when Good accelerated her SUV in their direction. Her supporters, meanwhile, claim that Good was attempting to maneuver away from the agents.

Moriarty also announced “ongoing evidence exchange” between the federal government and Minnesota law enforcement during the press conference. She said the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension shared its files on the January shootings with the local U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, State of Minnesota, and Bureau of Criminal Apprehension previously filed a federal lawsuit over the federal government’s refusal to hand over evidence. Moriarty said that she is “hopeful that we can resolve that federal lawsuit,” but that local officials would not immediately drop it.

The Washington Examiner reached out to the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.

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The Minnesota shootings forced President Donald Trump to recalibrate immigration enforcement, including by ousting Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino.

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national and illegal immigrant, died last week in Houston after officers conducted a traffic stop for an unrelated illegal immigrant, which led to an alleged vehicle ramming. Then, on Monday, ICE was involved in a shooting that left one person dead in Biddeford, Maine.