Feb 2 (Reuters) - A Minnesota federal judge on Monday dissolved a temporary order that had blocked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from destroying evidence related to the fatal shooting of Alex
Pretti by federal immigration agents, finding the agency was unlikely to do so.
U.S. District Judge Eric C. Tostrud in Saint Paul said the temporary restraining order he issued on January 24 was no longer needed because DHS appeared unlikely to destroy or improperly alter the evidence.
Pretti was the second U.S. citizen killed by federal agents during widespread protests in Minneapolis against President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement crackdown.
The U.S. Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into the shooting that could potentially lead to criminal charges against the officers involved, though there is a high legal bar to bring such a case.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and Hennepin County Attorney’s Office filed the lawsuit to obtain access to the shooting evidence after federal law enforcement refused to allow state investigators access to the street where agents killed Pretti.
Representatives for the state agencies did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday’s ruling.
The lawsuit said the investigation of the scene by federal agents was hasty and that public statements by top Trump administration officials showed that DHS decided the day of the shooting that the agents had done nothing wrong.
Tostrud said in his order that statements by DHS, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller immediately absolving agents of wrongdoing were “troubling” and reflect “snap judgments informed by speculation and motivated by political partisanship.”
However, Tostrud said the connection between those statements and actions by federal investigators was “too remote” to justify a continued court order.
Tostrud also said the shooting almost certainly triggered a legal duty for federal law enforcement to preserve evidence for a possible excessive force lawsuit brought on Pretti’s behalf, and that destroying evidence in that context would have serious consequences.
(Reporting by Jack Queen and Kanishka Singh; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and David Gregorio)
