Hennepin County prosecutors obtain hard drives of withheld evidence in three federal-shooting cases

Months after FBI refused to share evidence, prosecutors say

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced Monday that state prosecutors have obtained hard drives of previously withheld evidence in the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and the shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis by federal immigration agents, after months in which Minnesota authorities said the FBI was not sharing materials.

“Through the cooperation of our federal partners, we have obtained hard drives of previously withheld evidence in the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, and the shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis,” Moriarty said in a video statement posted on social media. The evidence includes Good’s car, statements, police body-camera video and other material that federal officials had previously withheld.

Moriarty said her office had made obtaining the evidence a priority since the day Good was killed. “It has been rightfully demanded by our community for six months,” she said. “Our democracy requires it. 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.”

Good, a 37-year-old unarmed U.S. citizen and mother, was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis on Jan. 7 while in the driver’s seat of her car. Incident reports from local authorities and a private autopsy requested by her family showed she suffered three gunshot wounds, including one to the head.

Pretti, a Minneapolis nurse who was observing immigration officers in the city, was shot dead on Jan. 24 by Customs and Border Protection officials in Minneapolis.

Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan national, was shot during the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota. 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, according to the statement.

Minnesota authorities had said earlier this year that the FBI was refusing to share evidence from its investigation into the shootings. Gov. Tim Walz demanded an “impartial” investigation into the deaths. Moriarty’s announcement Monday did not indicate whether the newly obtained evidence would lead to charges against federal officers.