A federal judge temporarily barred the Trump administration from destroying or altering evidence in the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old U.S. citizen in Minneapolis on Saturday.
U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, granted the emergency temporary restraining order Saturday night, protecting evidence removed from the scene of the shooting, which the Department of Homeland Security has taken into its exclusive custody.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office filed the complaint against the Trump administration after federal agents denied state and local law enforcement access to evidence of federal officers’ killing of Alex Pretti, a Minneapolis resident and intensive care nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital.
“According to reports, federal personnel apparently seized cell phones and detained witnesses. It is unclear whether federal personnel otherwise processed the scene — let alone how carefully,” the complaint states.
DHS is conducting the investigation. Tostrud scheduled a hearing for Monday afternoon in Saint Paul.
In the lawsuit, the Minnesota BCA cited the federal government’s refusal to let the state participate in the investigation into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent’s fatal shooting of Renee Good on Jan. 7.
Federal officials blocked the state from gathering evidence in Saturday’s shooting after state officials obtained a search warrant for the scene, BCA’s superintendent, Drew Evans, said during a press conference Saturday.
“We were not able to do really any work at the scene once we had access, because it was quickly overrun and overtaken,” Evans said.
DHS described Pretti as a threat to federal law enforcement because he had a firearm. Customs and Border Protection commander Greg Bovino alleged during a five-minute press conference Saturday that Pretti “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement” but didn’t provide specific details about how the Trump administration determined that, or evidence to support his depiction of what occurred.
Multiple bystander videos of the incident appeared to show federal agents holding Pretti to the ground before multiple shots were fired. Another video appears to show Pretti filming the federal agents with his phone and does not show the man with a gun drawn.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara described Pretti on Saturday as a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry.
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