Judge orders private review of ICE evidence in Renee Good shooting as Minnesota sues for access
A U.S. District Court judge has ordered the federal government to turn over unredacted ICE investigative materials in the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good — including agent Jonathan Ross’s training and personnel files, use‑of‑force policies, witness statements, videos, photos, cellphone and medical data — for an in camera (private) review within three weeks. Separately, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, the State of Minnesota and the BCA have sued DOJ and DHS and served Touhy demands seeking the same evidence (and additional items such as weapons, casings, autopsies and internal communications), accusing federal agencies of obstructing local investigations while acknowledging legal hurdles posed by the Supremacy Clause.
📌 Key Facts
- Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty sent formal Touhy demands to DOJ and DHS seeking the full evidentiary record in the ICE killing of Renee Good — including weapons and casings, all video and photos, medical and autopsy records, internal policies and training materials, and the identities and statements of every federal officer — and set a mid‑February deadline (with a March 3 deadline for related Pretti‑case materials), saying the requests were necessary after DOJ signaled it was not pursuing its own criminal case.
- Moriarty has publicly accused federal agencies of "obstructing" her office’s investigations, launched a "Transparency and Accountability Project" portal to collect public evidence on 17 incidents, said she was prepared to sue if Touhy demands were ignored, and ultimately joined the State of Minnesota and the BCA in filing a federal lawsuit against DOJ and DHS.
- The federal lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C. seeks to force DOJ and DHS to turn over evidence in three Metro Surge shootings — the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and the shooting of Julio Sosa‑Celis — and explicitly asks for evidentiary items plus DHS/DOJ internal policies, training materials and communications tied to Metro Surge; the complaint argues federal stonewalling prevents Minnesota from fulfilling its constitutional duty to investigate and violates state sovereignty, and it names the Trump administration leadership.
- A U.S. District Court judge ordered the federal government to produce unredacted evidence from the ICE shooting of Renee Good for an in camera (private) judicial review within three weeks; the order stems from a separate case involving ICE agent Jonathan Ross, in which a man Ross previously arrested is seeking the Good‑case file to challenge his conviction, and for now only the judge — not the parties or public — will see the records.
- The judge’s specified list of materials to be produced unredacted is sweeping and includes: Ross’s complete training and personnel files; ICE/DHS use‑of‑force and officer‑involved‑shooting policies in effect June 17, 2025–Jan. 7, 2026; any statements by Ross in the hour before and during the killing and in subsequent months; all witness statements; all photos, videos and audio from 30 minutes before to 60 minutes after the shooting; Ross’s Jan. 7 cellphone data; any medical evaluations of Ross tied to the investigation; and statements Ross made about his interaction with the earlier defendant.
- Legal experts and officials warn that Supremacy Clause protections make a state conviction of federal officers unlikely — prosecutors would have to prove agents acted outside the scope of their official duties — so any criminal case against federal agents would most likely have to come from federal prosecutors; Moriarty says she nevertheless expects to have enough non‑federal evidence to make charging decisions in Good and Pretti despite federal resistance.
- Local policing and oversight context: Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara acknowledged MPD was "trying to adjust" during Operation Metro Surge and faced criticism for limited intervention; MPD is investigating two possible misdemeanor assaults involving federal agents and has referred those matters to an Inspector General’s Office but has not received a response.
📊 Relevant Data
Operation Metro Surge was a large-scale immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota launched in late 2025, involving approximately 3,000 federal agents and resulting in over 4,000 arrests of individuals described as criminal illegal aliens.
A timeline of Operation Metro Surge — Minnesota Reformer
From September 2025 to February 2026, there were 14 shootings involving Department of Homeland Security immigration enforcement officers, including fatal incidents.
Trump's DHS immigration enforcement officers shot 14 people in five months — NBC News
In 2026, at least nine deaths were related to U.S. immigration enforcement, including shootings of individuals such as Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
US witnessed many ICE-related deaths in 2026. Here are their stories — Al Jazeera
Minnesota's immigrant population constitutes 9% of the state's residents as of recent estimates, up from 5% in 2000, with significant growth driven by international migration contributing to population changes from 2020 to 2024.
By immigrant group — MN Compass
Somalis form the largest Somali diaspora in the United States, with Minnesota hosting the biggest community, primarily due to refugee resettlement programs starting in the 1990s following the Somali civil war.
History of Somalis in Minneapolis–Saint Paul — Wikipedia
Latinx individuals accounted for more than 91% of deportations in 2018, despite comprising approximately 50.3% of the foreign-born population in the United States.
Addressing Racial Bias in the Immigration System — Berkeley Immigration
States rarely succeed in prosecuting federal officials due to Supremacy Clause protections, which require proof that agents acted outside their official duties, making federal prosecution more likely.
Can States Prosecute Federal Officials? — State Democracy Center
📰 Source Timeline (7)
Follow how coverage of this story developed over time
- A U.S. District Court judge has ordered the federal government to turn over unredacted evidence from the ICE shooting of Renee Good for an in camera (private) court review within three weeks.
- The order arises in a separate case involving ICE agent Jonathan Ross, where a man he previously arrested is seeking the full Good shooting investigative file to challenge his conviction.
- The judge’s order specifies a sweeping list of materials to be produced unredacted: Ross’s complete training and personnel files; ICE/DHS use‑of‑force and officer‑involved‑shooting policies in effect from June 17, 2025 through Jan. 7, 2026; any statements by Ross in the hour before and during Good’s killing and in the following months related to the investigation or the Good family; all witness statements; all photos, videos and audio from 30 minutes before to 60 minutes after the shooting; Ross’s Jan. 7 cellphone data; any medical evaluations of Ross tied to the investigation; and all statements Ross made about his interaction with the defendant in the earlier case.
- This is explicitly an in camera review: for now only the judge, not the parties or public, will see the records, although Minnesota is suing DOJ and DHS in a separate action to obtain the same evidence.
- The lawsuit explicitly names the Trump administration and casts the dispute as Minnesota v. the current DHS/DOJ leadership, not just an inter‑agency records fight.
- Filings detail that Minnesota is seeking not only evidentiary items (weapons, casings, video, autopsies) but also DHS/DOJ internal policies, training materials, and communications tied to Metro Surge operations in Minneapolis.
- The complaint argues that federal stonewalling is preventing Minnesota from fulfilling its constitutional duty to investigate homicides and frames the obstruction itself as a violation of state sovereignty and local public‑safety interests.
- The suit cites specific prior attempts at cooperation — including ignored or blown deadlines on Touhy requests — to build a record that DOJ and DHS have acted in bad faith.
- The article notes growing political pressure in Minnesota, including calls from state officials and advocates, to treat the Good and Pretti killings as test cases for whether any federal agent can be held to account for Metro Surge violence in the Twin Cities.
- A federal lawsuit has now been filed in Washington, D.C. by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, the State of Minnesota, and the BCA against the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security.
- The suit explicitly seeks to force DOJ and DHS to turn over evidence in three Minneapolis shootings by federal agents: the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and the shooting of Julio Sosa‑Celis.
- Moriarty publicly called the lack of a transparent investigation "unprecedented" and vowed, "We will not sit by and let that happen," while Ellison said the feds’ refusal to share evidence is "arbitrary" and "capricious" and has "no rational basis."
- The article reiterates that legal experts think a state conviction of the federal officers is unlikely even if prosecutors bring charges, because they would have to prove the agents acted outside the scope of their official duties, while DOJ has opened a civil‑rights probe only in the Pretti case.
- Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara appeared before the Community Commission on Police Oversight and was sharply criticized by about three dozen residents and activists over MPD’s lack of visible intervention during Operation Metro Surge.
- O’Hara publicly stated that MPD was in a 'constant state of trying to adjust' during the surge and said the department’s response 'wasn’t perfect,' arguing that local officers are limited because federal agents operate under different laws.
- O’Hara revealed that MPD is investigating two possible misdemeanor assault cases involving federal agents during the crackdown and has referred them to an Inspector General’s Office, but has not yet received any response.
- Moriarty says federal agencies are already 'obstructing' her office’s investigation into the Renee Good and Alex Pretti shootings and is prepared to file new lawsuits as soon as Tuesday if Touhy demands are ignored.
- Her office set a March 3 response deadline on its Touhy request for Pretti-case evidence and will treat non‑compliance as further obstruction.
- Moriarty publicly reiterated she expects to have enough non‑federal evidence to make charging decisions in both Good and Pretti shootings despite federal resistance and the Supremacy Clause hurdle.
- She formally launched a "Transparency and Accountability Project" portal to collect public evidence on 17 separate incidents involving potentially unlawful actions by federal agents, including actions by Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino.
- The article underlines that, in practice, Supremacy Clause protections make it unlikely federal officers will ever face a state trial, so any criminal case would almost certainly have to come from federal prosecutors.
- The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office has now sent formal Touhy letters to both DOJ and DHS demanding the full evidentiary record in the ICE killing of Renee Good, including weapons and casings, all video and photos, medical and autopsy records, internal policies and training materials, and the identities and statements of every federal officer involved.
- The office set a specific deadline (mid‑February) for the federal government to turn over materials, framing it as necessary to complete its criminal review because DOJ has signaled it is not pursuing its own criminal case.
- The article underscores that without federal cooperation, any state prosecution of ICE officer Jonathan Ross would face huge legal hurdles under supremacy‑clause protections — making this document demand a key test of whether local authorities will be allowed to fully investigate.