US federal judge orders preservation of evidence in Minneapolis shooting case
Los Angeles: A US federal judge has issued an emergency order requiring federal authorities to preserve all evidence related to the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis resident by federal immigration officers, following a lawsuit filed by Minnesota state and local agencies.
Judge Eric C. Tostrud of the US District Court for the District of Minnesota granted the temporary restraining order late Saturday night, after 37-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti was shot and killed during an immigration enforcement operation in south Minneapolis, Xinhua news agency reported.
The order bars defendants, including the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), among others, from “destroying or altering evidence” but does not require immediate transfer of materials to state investigators.
The lawsuit was filed by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), the state agency responsible for investigating officer-involved shootings, and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, represented by the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office. A hearing is scheduled for Monday afternoon.
According to court documents, BCA Superintendent Drew Evans stated in a sworn declaration that federal agents from the DHS blocked state investigators from accessing the scene after the BCA responded at approximately 9:30 a.m. local time. Federal agents continued to deny access even after the BCA obtained a search warrant signed by a Minnesota District Court judge at 11:54 a.m. local time.
Evans stated that in his more than 20 years at the BCA, he had never before encountered federal authorities blocking the agency’s access to an incident where both federal and state jurisdiction applied.
“This is uncharted territory,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison told reporters Sunday. “We’ve never had to do anything like this before.”
The state’s governor Tim Walz complained that “closing the crime scene, sweeping away the evidence, defying a court order and not allowing anyone to look at it … This is an inflection point in America.”
The fatal incident has produced sharply conflicting accounts between the federal government and local witness who recorded Pretti’s death on scene. The latest lawsuit was called by US media outlet Axios on Sunday as one of the “extraordinary legal maneuvers to stake local authorities’ claim to investigate the shooting.”
According to media reports of DHS statements, federal authorities said Pretti approached officers with a loaded 9-millimeter semi-automatic handgun and two magazines. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was quoted by ABC7 News as calling Pretti’s actions “an act of domestic terrorism.”
However, bystander video posted online appears to contradict the federal account. The footage appears to show Pretti holding a mobile phone as he attempted to help a woman pushed to the ground by federal agents. No footage appears to show a weapon in his hand. The videos show Pretti being pepper-sprayed and wrestled to the ground before multiple shots were fired.
In a family statement, Pretti’s relatives called the federal claims “reprehensible and disgusting,” saying video showed their son with “his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand raised above his head.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara confirmed Pretti was a US citizen with no criminal record beyond traffic violations and was a lawful gun owner. He worked as an intensive care unit nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital.
Ellison stated in a statement Saturday night after filing the lawsuit that “federal agents are not above the law” and demanded “a full, impartial, and transparent investigation.” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said her office “has jurisdiction to review this matter for potential criminal conduct by the federal agents involved.”
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called evidence destruction claims “a ridiculous attempt to divide the American people.”
This is the third shooting involving federal immigration agents in Minneapolis in January 2026, and the second fatal incident this month.
Tim Walz has already pledged a state investigation, blasting the federal government’s accounts of Pretti’s final moments as “lies.”