Feds turn over evidence in ICE shootings, but Pretti family says U.S. Attorney won't confirm agreement
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Federal law enforcement authorities have turned over previously withheld evidence connected to the shootings of three Minnesotans by federal agents during Operation Metro Surge this winter.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced Monday the evidence includes hard drives containing statements and body camera footage, as well as the 2014 Honda Pilot that Renee Good was driving when ICE Agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot her on Jan. 7.
Federal agencies have also shared evidence collected after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti on Jan. 24 and an incident on Jan. 14 in which ICE Agent Christian Castro allegedly shot and wounded Julio Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan national.
“I have been consistent that we have not prejudged any of these instances, and also that we need transparency, we need cooperation,” Moriarty said. “Our community needs it, Alex Pretti’s and Renee Good’s families deserve it, Julio Sosa-Celis deserves it, our democracy requires it.”
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Moriarty wouldn't provide a timeline for when her office would make decisions on any criminal charges, but she said any announcement will be made publicly.
Moriarty said she and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison have been in conversations with federal agencies about sharing the evidence since Good’s killing on Jan. 7. The FBI initially planned to share evidence with state authorities but backtracked soon after Good’s killing. After Border Patrol agents fatally shot Pretti, federal authorities physically blocked Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agents from the scene.
“This is getting back to normalcy, which we all have wanted,” Moriarty said. “We were trying to do that since Renee Good was shot, and now we’re back to that place.”
Attorney Antonio Romanucci, who represents the Good family, said in a statement that the evidence transfer represents a “meaningful step towards justice and accountability.”
“We are relieved and grateful to learn standard practices of cooperation have resumed,” Sosa-Celis’ attorney Robin Wolpert wrote in an email to MPR News on Monday.
But in a separate statement, Pretti family attorney Steve Schleicher writes that U.S. Attorney Dan Rosen in a meeting on Monday “refused to confirm any cooperation agreement between state and federal agencies — continuing to deny the Pretti family basic information that they have been requesting for months. No family should be required to beg federal authorities to do their job."
Pretti, 37, an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital, was shot and killed on Nicollet Avenue in south Minneapolis. Authorities have not publicly named the alleged shooters, but ProPublica identified them as Border Patrol Agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.
Rosen declined to comment on the Pretti family’s statement, or on Moriarty’s announcement about state-federal cooperation.
It’s not clear why the federal government has changed course. But federal law enforcement agents have been involved in a number of high-profile fatal shootings across the country in recent weeks, including in Texas, Tennessee and Maine. Confirmation hearings for acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche are also scheduled for later this week.
“Since the beginning, when Renee Good was shot and killed, everybody has been putting pressure on the federal government because everybody expects that when a person in the community is shot and killed by the government, that there is a thorough and complete investigation,” Moriarty said.
State officials have collected more than 1,000 pieces of evidence in the shootings by federal agents. Moriarty said federal authorities have expressed interest in obtaining the state’s evidence in all three shootings.
The state sued the federal government in March for refusing to share evidence in the shootings. Moriarty said the lawsuit has not yet been dismissed, and that she expects negotiations to take place. Filings in that case reveal some of the back-and-forth.
On June 2, Rosen sent a letter to BCA Superintendent Drew Evans, in which he asked the BCA to share evidence with federal authorities that state police had collected after the Sosa-Celis shooting. But the very next day, in a letter to Moriarty – Rosen rejected her request for evidence that federal authorities had collected, writing that it “does not comply with the procedural requirements” of the Justice Department.
Tensions appear to have eased since then. In a joint filing June 30, attorneys for both sides said there were “ongoing discussions … about the prospect of mutual information sharing.”
The shootings by ICE and Border Patrol agents took place during the federal government’s wintertime immigration enforcement surge into Minnesota. State officials have described the federal government’s decision to withhold evidence in the shootings as “unprecedented.”
Good, 37, was a poet and mother who was shot and killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on Jan. 7. She appeared to be maneuvering her vehicle to avoid the agents when Ross opened fire.
Sosa-Celis, 24, was shot and wounded at his home in north Minneapolis on Jan. 14 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Christian Castro, who has been charged in Minnesota with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime. Castro is currently in custody in Texas.
Rosen dropped criminal charges against Sosa-Celis and his friend Alfredo Aljorna after video evidence emerged that contradicted Castro’s sworn claims.
