ICE branch leading Alex Pretti death investigation

Is there an avenue, Anna, for the state or other investigative agencies to access evidence in this case, including that body camera footage? And will the public ever get to see that footage or video on Alex Pretti's own phone that you saw him using there just moments before the shooting?

Well, this is such a great question. And it also hearkens back to Renee Good, who was shot and killed just three weeks ago. What we saw was the White House wound up putting out on social media, the video from the officer who fired the lethal shots to show his point of view, but it's this ad hoc thing. It's whatever the administration wants to put out. So it's unclear if we will ever see the material. Now, I will say for our viewers, generally during an investigation, law enforcement would not release a video until the conclusion of the investigation, generally speaking. As journalists, we always ask for it. However, there are so many questions surrounding this investigation, I think it would go a long way for officials to put out as much information as possible and be as transparent as possible, since there is this cloud. And you asked about whether the state and local authorities will be able to access it. It appears, for at least in the near future, no. And in fact, the Minnesota Bureau of Apprehension withdrew from the Renee Good investigation because they said the FBI would not share crucial information and evidence, and therefore, they could not conduct even their own investigation. Liz. I want to get to the details of what those 40 seconds show, moment that Alex Pretti was shot. There's a lot of confusion as to who fired that first shot that led to the killing of Pretti. We're hearing that first shot may have come from Pretti's own gun by the ICE officer that took it off of him, and then the actual fatal shots were from another officer who was reacting to that first shot. What are you learning about those details?

Well, that's right, Liz. That type of gun that Pretti had is actually the same or similar to what some of the agents are given for their duties, but it is a gun that sometimes can go off on its own. It could have been fired by mistake, and it could have even gone off on its own as he was taking it away. But what you also hear on that video is you hear the agents say, "He's got a gun, he's got a gun," and they're clearly afraid. So we are learning a lot more about moment to moment, what happened. And I'm so glad you asked this question because I think sometimes people see one, two, or even three video angles of something and they think they have all the information. But actually, there is a lot of things happening-- there are a lot of things happening all at once. It is impossible to know exactly what happened just from seeing that video. And a real sober investigation needs to happen. And now some of those details, what you just mentioned, are coming out, that the first shot might have been fired by that gun, likely by mistake, which then triggered the other agents to fear for their lives and fire those deadly shots.

One more question about the investigation, Anna. The fact that DHS is the only agency that right now is investigating what happened with Alex Pretti, what kind of impact is that going to have on potential court cases moving forward, lawsuits? Is that going to have an impact on how this case could potentially be tried? It's a great question. And yes, it will because we have to have a chain of command for the evidence. The gun, for example, that was taken off Pretti should be placed in a plastic bag, sealed, DNA evidence taken from it, fingerprints taken from it in an organized way, according to protocol. The weapons from the agents who fired should also be entered into evidence. So there needs to be, as we call it, a chain of command for this evidence, and it needs to be collected in such a way that a prosecutor could potentially use it if they wanted to bring charges. Now, that is a big if, I will say, because the statutes say that if these agents did fear for their lives and if they felt it was an imminent threat, they could potentially make that argument and make it strong enough so that charges are not brought. But of course, you want the justice system to be able to play out. You want to preserve that option for an attorney general-- that's generally what would happen. You would actually have the Minnesota attorney general generally involved in this investigation, and that is not happening at this time, raising more questions, Liz. Anna Schecter, thank you so much. Always great to be with you.