By Julia Harte
Oct 27 (Reuters) - The parents of Alex Pretti, a US citizen shot and killed by federal immigration agents in Minnesota in January, criticized President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday for withholding evidence from local prosecutors who are investigating the incident.
"Our experience with the Department of Justice has left us wondering how Alex will ever get justice," Pretti's father Michael said at a press conference in Minneapolis, the first time the family has spoken publicly since his death. "Do your job and stop shielding Alex's killers," he demanded.
The Justice Department said in a statement to Reuters that "communications with family members, if any, come at a later stage of a case, such as indictment, initial appearance, plea, trial, or sentencing. Those communications do not typically occur during an investigation."
Pretti, 37, an intensive-care-unit nurse, was killed while participating in protests against the federal immigration enforcement surge in Minneapolis, shortly after ICE agents fatally shot another US citizen, Renee Good.
Their deaths sparked fierce protests, condemnations from local leaders and calls for accountability.
FIGHT OVER EVIDENCE
Trump officials swiftly defended the Border Patrol agents who killed Pretti, claiming he was trying to attack them with a handgun he was carrying legally. But bystander videos showed Pretti had a phone in his hand and was trying to help a protester who had been pushed to the ground when agents pinned him down and shot him.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty launched a criminal investigation soon after Pretti’s death. In March, she sued the Trump administration for access to evidence in the killings of Pretti and Good, as well as the non-lethal shooting of a Venezuelan man by an immigration agent in January.
Moriarty said in July that the federal government was handing over "voluminous" evidence related to the shootings. When her office examined the material from the Minnesota US Attorney's Office, however, it realized "some information had been withheld," Moriarty said earlier this month in a declaration filed in federal district court in Washington.
"Furthermore, it is clear that the federal government has obtained additional material since they last shared information with the State," including material obtained through grand jury processes and other witness statements, Moriarty said in the filing.
US prosecutors responded that they were not obligated to release further evidence because Moriarty's office had not yet initiated legal proceedings in the case.
"The timing is consistent with how these types of investigations proceed," the DOJ said in its statement.
"It has been a miserable year for our family," Pretti's mother Susan said at Tuesday's press conference. "All we want is justice for Alex [and] that the federal government treat us with the dignity and respect that our son deserves."
(Reporting by Julia Harte; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )