Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced Monday that state prosecutors have finally obtained previously withheld evidence in the fatal shootings of two people during federal immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis earlier this year.
The materials, turned over through cooperation with federal authorities, include hard drives, vehicle evidence, witness statements, and police body-camera video related to the deaths of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, as well as the shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis. Moriarty said her office is already analyzing the newly acquired materials alongside evidence already in hand.
Good, a 37-year-old unarmed U.S. citizen and mother, was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on January 7 in her car during an encounter in Minneapolis. According to incident reports and a private autopsy commissioned by her family, she sustained three gunshot wounds, including one to the head. Pretti, a Minneapolis nurse, was killed by Customs and Border Protection officials on January 24 while observing immigration enforcement activity.
The long delay in releasing the evidence had drawn public scrutiny and demands from state officials. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz previously called for an impartial investigation into the incidents, and the FBI's initial refusal to share materials had sparked friction between state and federal authorities.
Moriarty said obtaining the evidence had been a top priority since the day Good was killed. "Our democracy requires it," she stated in a social media video. "After receiving this evidence, we immediately began to analyze it in the context of the evidence we already had in hand. This analysis is ongoing."
Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan national, was also shot during the federal immigration crackdown. The federal officer who shot Sosa-Celis was charged in May with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime.
Author James Rodriguez: "The release of this evidence ends a frustrating standoff, but the real test comes now as Minnesota prosecutors actually use it to build their case."
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