DFL lawmakers seek to make ICE agents liable for not providing aid after shootings
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Minnesota state senators took their first look Friday at a bill that would allow Minnesotans to sue someone who fails to provide medical aid after a shooting, an issue that gained public attention after two fatal shootings by federal immigration agents.
The bill seeks to expand upon current Minnesota law that makes it a crime to not assess the victim and provide aid after shooting someone or witnessing a shooting, as long as it is safe to do so.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, a registered nurse, is the chief sponsor of the bill. Four other DFL senators with medical backgrounds are signed on as well.
In pushing the bill, Murphy cited a second-by-second timeline of the aftermath of the shooting of Renee Macklin Good by MPR News and APM Reports that showed immigration agents denied Macklin Good medical care for more than six minutes. When Minneapolis firefighters assessed Macklin Good more than seven minutes after she was shot, they found she still had a pulse.
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Murphy also cited an affidavit of a Minnesota pediatrician who performed CPR on Alex Pretti when immigration agents did not.
“I don't want to live in a place where authorities think their responsibilities include shooting people, but don't include helping the wounded or dying, even and especially if they're the ones who caused it,” Murphy said at a Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee meeting Friday.
If Murphy’s bill becomes law, it would be retroactive to Dec. 1, 2025 — coinciding with the ramped-up presence of federal immigration agents.
“This allows for the cases in the Good and Pretti shootings to be filed immediately,” Murphy said.
Republican committee members expressed concern that the bill would open Minnesotans up to excessive lawsuits.
“Has any analysis been done on how often this could be added as a claim in civil shooting cases self defense or law enforcement related?” Republican Sen. Michael Holmstrom Jr. asked.
Murphy said only six people were convicted under the failure to render aid law in the last five years, so she doesn't anticipate a wave of lawsuits.
"This is a rarely used law because we follow the law," she said.
Federal officials are largely protected from lawsuits, but Murphy said she believes if her bill becomes law it would hold up in court because it doesn’t single out federal agents.
"We're not treating the federal agents differently than we're treating anybody else in the state of Minnesota,” she said. “That's an important and operative piece of the legislation."
The bill is part of a package of bills introduced by DFL senators in response to the federal immigration surge in the state. The Senate Judiciary Committee has begun vetting the proposals but hasn’t yet voted on the bills.
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