Feds now sharing evidence in Minnesota ICE surge shootings, including Renee Good's SUV
The top prosecutors of Minnesota and Hennepin County say federal investigators are now sharing evidence in connection to the shootings by immigration agents in the state amid Operation Metro Surge earlier this year in Minneapolis, including Renee Good's SUV.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison have been pushing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice for months to share evidence related to the deaths of Good and Alex Pretti — killed on Jan. 7 and Jan. 24, respectively — and the shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis on Jan. 14.
Moriarty announced in a news conference Monday morning that the breakthrough happened two weeks ago, with the Minneapolis-based U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota working to bridge the divide between local and federal officials.
"We did get the hard drives from our federal partners that includes statements, body-worn cameras we got and the BCA currently has Renee Good's car that is being analyzed. We are not at the point now to talk about the state of any of the evidence. We are thoroughly looking at it to see what we have and put things together," Moriarty said.
Moriarty says this is also a two-way street, with local investigators agreeing to share evidence with the feds.
"The wonderful thing is now we have all the evidence. We don't have to speculate about what we don't have, so that certainly makes our analysis, our examination much easier once we're able to get through the volume of information that we have," Moriarty said. "I can't speak to their protocol or what they did here. We are just extremely grateful that they recognize the need to get back to what's normal here and that they recognized here locally how important this is to our community, to the families of Alex Preti and Renee Good."
In a joint statement released with Moriarty on Monday, Ellison called the evidence sharing "a positive development" on the path to justice.
"I remain deeply troubled that the federal government spent more than half a year attempting to conceal this evidence from state investigators, and I hope this is the beginning of a major course correction on the part of the federal government," Ellison said.
Also in a statement Monday, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar called the cooperation "long overdue."
"Much more needs to be done — and I will be working to get more answers at the hearing this week," Klobuchar said.
The legal team representing Good's family said in their own statement that the transfer of evidence "is an important and meaningful step towards justice and accountability."
Two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have been identified in the shootings: Jonathan Ross and Christian Castro. Ross, who has not been criminally charged, killed Good while she was driving away from him after a verbal encounter off East 34th Street and Portland Avenue.
Castro, who shot Venezuelan national Sosa-Celis in north Minneapolis, is in custody and charged with several counts of assault and falsely reporting a crime. Prosecutors accuse him of lying about the violent encounter, and firing through Sosa-Celis' front door while young children were home.
Pretti was shot dead by two unidentified U.S. Border Patrol and Protection officers near the busy intersection of West 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue South. Both Pretti and Good were acting as citizen observers when they were killed.
A federal judge ordered Homeland Security and the justice department in late January to preserve evidence in Good and Pretti's cases, and Moriarty and Ellison sued the departments in March for withholding access. That lawsuit will remain in place as the evidence is pored over by the BCA and state prosecutors.
