Minnesota prosecutors have announced that they have obtained key evidence in their ongoing investigations into the fatal shootings of two protesters during demonstrations against federal immigration enforcement earlier this year.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said Monday that hard drives containing previously withheld evidence in the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, as well as the shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis, had been secured through cooperation with federal partners. The materials include police body-camera footage, witness statements, and other evidence that federal officials had previously declined to release.
Officials have also taken possession of the damaged vehicle driven by Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, who was shot and killed in her car while leaving an anti-immigration protest in Minneapolis on January 7. Pretti was killed weeks later. The deaths sparked nationwide outrage and renewed calls to rein in immigration enforcement.
“After receiving this evidence, we immediately began to analyze it in the context of the evidence we already had in hand,” Moriarty said. “It will be thorough, fair and complete. We are committed to seeing this through, to making a decision and being transparent about it no matter where the evidence takes us.”
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who had previously joined Moriarty in a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice over information sharing, expressed concern about the delay. “It should never have taken this long for Minnesota law enforcement to gain access to the federal government’s evidence,” he said, adding that he hoped the release marks “the beginning of a major course correction.”
