ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota’s investigations agency said Thursday that the U.S. attorney’s office has prevented it from taking part in the investigation into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer’s fatal shooting of Minneapolis woman Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three.
“The investigation would now be led solely by the FBI, and the BCA would no longer have access to the case materials, scene evidence or investigative interviews necessary to complete a thorough and independent investigation,” Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans said in a statement.
It had been decided that the BCA would investigate Good’s shooting death along with the FBI, but the U.S. attorney’s office changed that, according to Evans.
The announcement came as protestors and law enforcement clashed Thursday morning outside a Minneapolis immigration court, with the governor urging restraint and schools canceling classes as a precaution. Asked about the development, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday that Minnesota authorities “don’t have any jurisdiction in this investigation.”
Appearing in the White House briefing room, the vice president’s voice rose as he decried what he called the “corporate media” for its coverage of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer having shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis.
“This was an attack on law and order. This was an attack on the American people,” said Vance, who maintained it has not been portrayed that way by many journalists.
“The way that the media, by and large, has reported this story has been an absolute disgrace,” he added. “And it puts our law enforcement officers at risk every single day.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz criticized the Trump administration Thursday for freezing Minnesota out of the investigation into the fatal shooting in Minneapolis of a woman by a federal officer.
“It feels very, very difficult that we will get a fair outcome,” Walz said at a briefing for reporters. “And I say that only because people in positions of power have already passed judgment, from the president to the vice president to (Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, have stood and told you things that are verifiably false, verifiably inaccurate.”
Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson said he’d welcome the chance to get his agents back involved in the search for answers.
“For us to be able to do that, it would be it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, without cooperation from the federal government,” Jacobson said.
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