Tensions between Minnesota and federal officials have deepened over a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer's fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis.
State and federal officials have offered starkly different accounts of the shooting, in which an ICE agent shot US citizen Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, in a residential neighbourhood.
The incident drew condemnation from local officials and sparked widespread protests in the state and beyond.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) said it had initially agreed with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to conduct a joint investigation into the shooting, but that the federal agency had "reversed course" and taken sole control of the investigation.
The decision, according to the BCA's superintendent, Drew Evans, means the state bureau will no longer have access to the scene evidence, case materials or interviews.
"As a result, the BCA has reluctantly withdrawn from the investigation," Evans said.
Keith Ellison, the state's Democratic attorney general, told CNN the FBI's decision was "deeply disturbing" and said state authorities could investigate with or without the federal government's cooperation.
He said the evidence he has seen, including some that has not yet been made public, indicates state charges are a possibility.
Protests have taken place at the scene of the shooting and elsewhere in Minneapolis. Source: Getty / Star Tribune
Democratic Minnesota governor Tim Walz said at a press conference any federal investigation that proceeded without state involvement would likely be seen as a "whitewash".
"And I say that only because people in positions of power ... from the president to the vice president to Kristi Noem have already passed judgement and told you things that are verifiably false," he said.
The FBI declined to comment on the BCA statement.
The FBI is investigating the fatal shooting in Minneapolis, a major city in the state of Minnesota. Source: Getty / Stephen Maturen
The department officials, including Noem, defended the shooting as self-defence and accused the woman of trying to ram agents in an act of "domestic terrorism".
Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, called that assertion "bulls--t" and "garbage" based on bystander videos taken of the incident that appeared to contradict the government's account.
Both Frey and Walz have called on US President Donald Trump to withdraw federal agents from the city, saying their presence is sowing chaos in the streets.
But the New York Times reported the administration was deploying more than 100 additional customs and border patrol personnel from other cities in the wake of the shooting.
Share
