If a federal officer shoots someone in St. Paul or Ramsey County, the county attorney is asking local law enforcement chiefs to independently secure evidence and immediately call in the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
John Choi’s request and suggested guidance came six days after an ICE officer fatally shot Renee Good, 37, in Minneapolis. The BCA and FBI were initially going to conduct a joint investigation, but the BCA said the U.S. Attorney’s Office “reversed course” and they were informed the FBI would solely lead the investigation.
“I think what happened is they had things worked out, then the rug got pulled out from underneath whatever agreements were made,” Choi said in an interview. “That woke us up to recognize that we can’t assume that cooperation is the standard anymore, and so we need to take measures to protect our processes and to protect the public interest.”
The key issues are having “a thorough investigation and one that’s transparent at the conclusion,” said Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher.
When an investigation is closed in Minnesota, law enforcement reports become public.
“In the state system, the public gets to review the investigative data,” Fletcher said. “In the federal system, quite often those documents are never released or, after 10 years, possibly.”
BCA prefers collaboration
Choi asked BCA Superintendent Drew Evans to send the BCA’s Force Investigations Unit if there is a shooting involving a federal officer in Ramsey County, which Evans agreed to. Other county attorneys have not yet established similar standing requests with the BCA, Evans said Thursday.
“Part of the reason we’re here is that a lot has changed,” Evans said. “The FBI has long been and continues to be a good partner to us. … Our commitment continues to be to look for paths forward to share and conduct investigations, preferably collaboratively and jointly with them, but if not trying to work towards a place where they share information with us and we share information with them.”
Choi said he issued his memo Tuesday after conversations with Ramsey County law enforcement chiefs. The guidance in the memo is “how we normally respond to any officer-involved critical incident where the use of deadly force is used, whether someone is dead or they’re injured.”
“I wanted to reaffirm this is the way that we do things, and that if it’s a federal agent that’s involved, our response should be the same,” Choi added.
The memo, obtained by the Pioneer Press through a data practices request to the county attorney’s office, requests that local law enforcement:
- respond and provide medical assistance
- immediately notify the BCA and request their assistance
- independently protect the scene and any evidence at the scene
- attempt to identify any witnesses and involved federal officers before they leave the scene
- canvas the area for witnesses and video cameras that may have captured evidence before the BCA arrives.
“If this were to happen in the six cities that we patrol, sheriff’s deputies would take control of the scene, including the casings that are recovered, any vehicles recovered, and freeze the scene,” Fletcher said.
After an investigation by the BCA, Choi said his office would review the case to “determine whether or not the use of force was justified, or whether criminal charges are appropriate.”
Minneapolis shooting
On Wednesday night, there was another shooting by a federal officer in Minneapolis. The officer shot a man in the leg after being attacked with a shovel and broom handle while trying to make an arrest, officials said.
Minneapolis police requested the BCA investigate. The FBI was also out investigating, Evans said.
With separate investigations, who gets the evidence, such as casings?
“That’s one of the things that is a bit challenging in these situations,” Evans said. “That’s going to be on a case-by-case basis. … That’s why I continue to hope to find a path forward to jointly investigate because then it’s easier to work some of that out.”
In the BCA’s investigation of a federal officer’s use of force, they would provide their case file to a local prosecutor, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI, Evans said.
A law that went into effect in Minnesota in 2020 has the BCA’s Force Investigations Unit investigate any deadly force involving Minnesota peace officers. While federal officers are not Minnesota peace officers, “the use-of-force standard in Minnesota that applies to peace officers is how a county attorney would review any of the force,” Evans added.
County attorney’s offices have the authority to convene an investigative grand jury, which has subpoena powers, if necessary, Choi noted.
Renee Good shooting investigation
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty called on the public last week to submit to her office any information, videos or photos they have regarding Good’s shooting.
She said their request for a joint investigation was “not because we have concerns about the FBI investigation,” but “based on a previous experience with FBI processes, we are concerned that the evidence obtained in an investigation that has only been conducted at the federal level will not be shared with our office for review.”
The FBI has Good’s vehicle that she was shot in, ballistic evidence and witness interviews.
“Our goal must be to ensure that a thorough investigation is completed at the local level, so that our community can have transparency,” Moriarty said. She said her office has jurisdiction to make a charging decision, but “we do not yet know if there will be sufficient evidence without the FBI case file” to do so.
An FBI probe is ongoing into the shooting of Good.
“Federal agents risk their lives each day to safeguard our communities,” Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement last week. “They must make decisions, under dynamic and chaotic circumstances, in less time than it took to read this sentence. The law does not require police to gamble with their lives in the face of a serious threat of harm. Rather, they may use deadly force when they face an immediate threat of significant physical harm. Following any officer-involved shooting, standard protocols ensure that evidence is collected and preserved.”
