MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty on Friday called on members of the public to send any video or other evidence in the fatal shooting of Renee Good directly to her office, despite the Trump administration’s decision to hand the investigation solely to the FBI.
Moriarty said that although her office has collaborated effectively with the FBI in past cases, she is concerned by the Trump administration’s decision to bar state and local agencies from playing any role in the investigation into Wednesday’s killing of Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis. Specifically, she said she’s worried the FBI won’t share evidence with state investigators.
Moriarty said she isn’t sure what legal outcome the evidence her office receives from the public might produce. But she said her office is responsible for the investigation, despite the Trump administration’s decision to assign it solely to the FBI.
“We do have jurisdiction to make this decision with what happened in this case,” she said. “It does not matter that it was a federal law enforcement agent.”
She also said that despite the Trump administration’s insistence that the officer who shot Good has complete legal immunity, that isn’t the case.
Moriarty also said that her office would offer a link for the public to submit videos that captured the fatal shooting.
The prosecutor’s news conference came as another round of protests were planned for Friday in Minneapolis over the Good’s killing and a day after federal immigration officers shot and wounded two people in Portland, Oregon.
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Hundreds of people protesting the Wednesday shooting of Renee Good marched in freezing rain Thursday night down one of Minneapolis’ major thoroughfares, chanting “ICE out now!” and holding signs saying, “Killer ice off our streets.” The day began with a charged demonstration outside of a federal facility that is serving as a hub for the immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Authorities erected barricades outside the facility Friday.
City workers, meanwhile, removed barricades made of old Christmas trees and other debris that had been blocking the streets near where the ICE officer shot Good as she tried to drive away. Officials said they would allow a makeshift shrine to the 37-year-old mother of three to remain.
The shooting in Portland, Oregon, took place outside a hospital Thursday afternoon. A man and woman, identified by the Department of Homeland Security as Venezuela nationals Luis David Nico Moncada and Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, were shot inside a vehicle, and their conditions were not immediately known. The FBI and the Oregon Department of Justice were investigating.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and the city council called on ICE to end all operations in the city until a full investigation is completed. Hundreds protested Thursday night at a local ICE building. Early Friday, Portland police reported that officers had arrested several protesters after asking the to move from the street to the sidewalk, to allow traffic to flow.
Just as it did following Good’s shooting, DHS defended the actions of the officers in Portland, saying it occurred after a Venezuelan man with alleged gang ties and who was involved in a recent shooting tried to “weaponize” his vehicle to hit the officers. It wasn’t immediately clear if the shootings were captured on video, as Good’s was.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, President Donald Trump and others in his administration have repeatedly characterized the Minneapolis shooting as an act of self-defense and cast Good as a villain, suggesting she used her vehicle as a weapon to attack the officer who shot her.
But state and local officials and protesters rejected that characterization, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey saying video recordings show the self-defense argument is “garbage.”
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