People attend a candlelight vigil this week that was organized by health care workers and that took place at the site where Alex Pretti was killed in Minneapolis.
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One of two shooting deaths of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by federal agents is the subject of a U.S. Department of Justice civil rights investigation.
The Civil Rights Division is investigating the Saturday killing of Alex Pretti but not the shooting death earlier this month of Renee Macklin Good by federal agents in Minneapolis, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in Washington on Friday.
Pretti was shot multiple times Jan. 24 as Border Patrol officers tried to arrest him while he was recording immigration officers on his phone.
Blanche says the probe is separate from the Department of Homeland Security’s shooting investigation of the incident.
“It means talking to witnesses. It means looking at documentary evidence, sending subpoenas if you have to,” Blanche told reporters at a news briefing Friday on multiple topics. “And the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, has the best experts in the world at this.”
Blanche gave no investigation timetable, nor did he commit to the release of body camera footage of the agents. He said the department’s investigation would encompass events of that day as well as the days and weeks that preceded the Pretti shooting.
In a statement, Steve Schleicher, the Pretti family attorney, said: “The family’s focus is on a fair and impartial investigation that examines the facts around his murder.”
Under questioning, Blanche said the fatal shooting of Good isn’t receiving similar Justice Department scrutiny.
“There are thousands, unfortunately, of law enforcement events every year where somebody is shot,” he said. “The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice does not investigate every one of those shootings. There has to be circumstances or facts, or maybe unknown facts, but certainly circumstances that warrant an investigation.”
Federal officials have excluded Minnesota investigators from assisting with reviews of both shootings, leading to a state lawsuit that seeks to require that evidence of the Pretti shooting be maintained. State authorities haven’t ruled out bringing charges against federal officers after completing their own investigations.