Nine months after federal agents shot their son in Minneapolis, Michael and Susan Pretti say the Justice Department has ignored them
The parents of Alex Pretti, the ICU nurse shot and killed by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis in January, said Tuesday that the Justice Department has ignored their family for nine months and urged it to resume sharing evidence with Minnesota investigators.
Michael and Susan Pretti made the appeal at their first press conference, alongside family attorney Steven Schleicher, CBS News Minnesota reported. Pretti, 37, was killed on Jan. 24 by federal agents during Operation Metro Surge, the immigration crackdown in Minnesota.
Alex Pretti’s Parents Say DOJ Is Shielding Agents
“At every turn they have ignored us, misled us and shielded Alex’s killers,” Michael Pretti said.
He said no one from the government contacted the family. “Imagine learning that your child had been murdered by watching it on TV,” he said, according to Spectrum News. “No one from the federal government called us that day, nor the next, nor the next 275 days.”
The family said a letter sent three months ago to Attorney General Todd Blanche, asking for basic information such as the names of the agents who shot their son, has gone unanswered.
Michael Pretti said U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen had “stonewalled us for nine months, refusing to share a single update of any kind,” MPR News reported.
His message to Rosen and Blanche was direct: “Share the evidence now so prosecutors can follow the facts and hold these men accountable. Do your job and stop shielding Alex’s killers.”
“The federal government went on TV and lied about Alex. They tried to slander his memory to cover up their crime,” Susan Pretti said.
She described her son as having “a big heart, a warm personality and a great sense of humor.”
The couple, who live in Colorado, said their appeal had nothing to do with the upcoming midterm elections. “We do not want to be on TV. We are not political activists, nor do we want to become political activists. All we want is justice for Alex,” Susan Pretti said.
What Investigators Say Is Being Withheld
Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), said in a legal declaration that the state still lacks key evidence, the Associated Press reported. The missing items include the firearms the officers used, their phones, projectiles and casings, a gun taken from Pretti before he was shot, and a recorded statement from one of the officers who shot him.
According to court documents, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota told Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty on Sept. 10 that evidence sharing would be paused indefinitely “in light of challenges with D.C.”
Evans wrote in his declaration: “I am aware of no other justification for the federal government’s refusal to share evidence … other than a disagreement with the State’s exercise of its prerogative to investigate these incidents,” KARE 11 reported.
State prosecutors have again asked a judge to order federal agencies to hand over the evidence. They argue the agencies “have identified no legal authority or rational basis justifying their obstruction of state criminal investigations.”
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said in a statement to WCCO: “The federal government continues to obstruct our investigation into Alex Pretti’s killing. That’s why we continue to pursue our lawsuit in federal court to access the evidence that is being wrongly withheld.”
Justice Department Defends Its Process
The Justice Department said its handling of the case is routine. “The timing is consistent with how these types of investigations proceed. As is standard practice, communications with family members, if any, come at a later stage of a case, such as indictment, initial appearance, plea, trial, or sentencing,” the department said in a statement.
In a court reply filed last week, Justice Department attorneys argued it is within their discretion to decline to share information with state authorities. They cited the department’s Touhy regulations, which they said apply only when formal legal proceedings are underway.
Sources familiar with the investigation told WCCO that almost all evidence has been shared, and that they believe sharing will resume soon. The Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office had no comment on the news conference, MPR News reported.
Schleicher, the family’s attorney, pushed back. “No family should have to beg someone in the federal government to do their job,” he said. “Stop being the Department of Obstruction and begin being the Department of Justice.”
“Why are they fighting the state in court?” he asked.
He declined to say whether the family plans to sue the federal government. “The family will avail itself to any and all remedies in pursuit of justice for Alex,” he said.
No agents have been criminally charged in Pretti’s killing, WBAY reported.
A Months-Long Fight Over Evidence
In March, Moriarty, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and the BCA sued the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security in federal court in Washington, D.C., FOX 9 reported. The suit seeks evidence in the killings of Pretti and Renee Good, and in the shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis.
Good, 37, was shot and killed by an ICE officer in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, weeks before Pretti.
Days after Pretti’s killing, the Justice Department said it had opened a federal civil rights probe.
In July, state prosecutors said the federal government had begun turning over evidence, including police body camera video and hard drives containing statements. Moriarty said then that the state expected to receive all of it. In October filings, investigators said the transfers stopped soon after that announcement.
Video Contradicts Early Official Accounts
Hours after the shooting, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem alleged that Pretti had approached agents with a gun and “violently resisted.” Greg Bovino, then the Border Patrol’s commander at large, accused him of trying to “massacre law enforcement.”
In footage obtained by CBS News, an agent removes a gun from Pretti’s waistband and is turning away when the first shot is fired, about one second later. At least 10 more shots can be heard.
A report to Congress obtained by CBS said two Border Patrol agents fired their weapons. Then-Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Pretti was a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry.
Noem later stepped down, and Bovino was demoted before retiring in March, CBS reported.
Pretti, a graduate of Green Bay’s Preble High School, worked as an intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital.
Featured image from: Sharon Mollerus, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons