Judge: Federal gov’t can’t destroy evidence related to shooting of Alex Pretti
A judge granted the Minnesota Attorney General’s request for a temporary restraining order asking the court to prevent federal officials from destroying any evidence related to the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents.
Minnesota District Judge Eric Tostrud said in the order the defendants, including Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officer Todd Lyons, U.S. Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI director Kash Patel, are barred from destroying or altering evidence.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, at a news conference, said filing the lawsuit on behalf of the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was not a “rash decision.”
Homeland Security attempted to block Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigators from collecting evidence Saturday morning. BCA Superintendent Drew Evans said they eventually received a warrant to access the shooting site.
However, Ellison said Sunday, they were still refused access. Federal authorities also recently blocked BCA from examining evidence in the Jan. 7 ICE killing of 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis.
“This is uncharted territory now, friends, this comes at the tail end of other offenses,” Ellison said. “…. I don’t care if you’re a conservative, liberal, or whatever, but you should at least be in favor of conserving evidence in a homicide.”
Ellison noted state officials haven’t previously taken these measures. The idea that a federal government agent might “even think about doing such a thing was completely unforeseeable only a few weeks ago —but now this is what we have to do,” he said.
“The irreparable harm we would suffer if the federal government were allowed to destroy evidence is so weighty that any harm to the federal government does not even budge the scales in a court. It’s imperative that we preserve as much evidence as possible so that the state investigators are allowed to access the evidence to ensure a fair, thorough investigation,” Ellison said.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement that claims the federal government would destroy evidence are “a ridiculous attempt to divide the American people and distract from the fact that our law enforcement officers were attacked — and their lives were threatened — yesterday.” She added DHS is actively investigating the shooting.
The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement after the shooting that said Pretti “approached the agents with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun.” However, witnesses say he they did not see him reaching for or holding a weapon. Videos of the shooting circulating on social media and verified by national and local outlets do not show Pretti holding any kind of weapon, either.
Another hearing on the matter is set for Monday afternoon.
State officials have also filed a federal lawsuit over 3,000 federal immigration agents deployed to Minnesota as part of what the Trump administration calls “Operation Metro Surge”. During Sunday’s news conference, Ellison called this surge “unprecedented.”
“There have been times in American history where they’ve deported a lot of people, but a concentrated deployment of ICE agents in one state in one period of time is unprecedented, and therefore there’s no playbook, and therefore nobody knows exactly how to deal with this situation,” Ellison said.
As part of Operation Metro Surge, Ellison said, “countless numbers of people” have been stopped and asked for their papers; stores have had to shutter and students aren’t going to school out of fear, along with three shootings by federal agents, two of them fatal.
“[Pretti] was our neighbor, and he should still be with us right now,” Ellison said.
Bondi’s letter
Bondi, in a letter obtained by The New York Times and other media outlets, accused Minnesota state officials of failing to enforce federal immigration law. She cited instances of Walz calling ICE agents “modern-day Gestapo“ and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey telling them to “get the f**k out” of the city.
She also mentioned allegations of “unprecedented” financial fraud happening in the state.
“You and your office must restore the rule of law, support ICE officers, and bring an end to the chaos in Minnesota,” Bondi wrote, giving Walz three actions she wanted him to take.
These are: sharing records on Minnesota’s Medicaid and food and nutrition service programs, including Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program data, with the federal government; repealing sanctuary policies and laws in the state, which prevent local officials from working with federal immigration agents; and allowing the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division access to voter rolls.
Walz rejected these conditions, saying at a news conference that it wasn’t a “serious attempt.”
This has “nothing to do with fraud,” he said, noting the federal government has not sent in forensic accountants. Fraud allegations are something local authorities have been dealing with for quite some time, he said, adding the Trump administration is “taking credit for people” who were already in jail.
“I would just give a pro tip to the Attorney General — there’s 2 million documents in the Epstein files we’re still waiting on,” he said. “Go ahead and work on those.”
When it comes to letting the DOJ access voter rolls, “the answer to Attorney General Bondi’s request is no,” Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said in a statement.
“Her letter is an outrageous attempt to coerce Minnesota into giving the federal government private data on millions of U.S. citizens in violation of state and federal law. This comes after repeated and failed attempts by the DOJ to pressure my office into providing the same data,” he said. “…We have repeatedly offered to disclose to the DOJ voter data that is already public, without the need to reveal private data protected by state and federal law. The DOJ has declined those offers.”
Response to agents opening fire on Pretti
In the aftermath of Saturday’s shooting, protests broke out in Minnesota and elsewhere. People honored Pretti at vigils.
Pretti’s parents said in a statement that their son was an intensive care nurse at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital. They called him a “kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends” and criticized “the sickening lies told about our son by the administration.”
More than 60 CEOs from some of Minnesota’s largest companies, including Target, Best Buy, 3M, Cargill, Land O’ Lakes and General Mills, as well as the Minnesota Timberwolves, Lynx, Vikings, Wild and United FC signed on to a public letter calling for “immediate deescalation,” though did not specifically name Border Patrol or Homeland Security. The companies have faced public scrutiny, particularly as hundreds of Minnesota small businesses closed Friday in a show of solidarity with a protest that drew thousands in record-setting cold temperatures.
Bovino said all agents “involved in that scene” of the shooting are currently still working, but not in Minneapolis “for their safety.”
“There’s this thing called doxing and the safety of our employees is very important to us,” he said. The identity of the Border Patrol agent who opened fire has not been released, and Bovino did not elaborate on what he meant by agents being “involved” in the scene.
“I’ve not concluded anything. I’ve not given you a conclusion — but what I do know is this individual was on that scene several minutes before that shooting interfering with a lawful, legal, ethical law enforcement operation,” he said. “When someone makes the choice to come into an active law enforcement scene, interfere, obstruct, delay or assault, law enforcement officers and and and they bring a weapon to do that — that is a choice that that individual made.”
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
