Minnesota Judge Orders DHS to Preserve Evidence in Fatal Border Patrol Shooting

A federal judge in Minnesota ordered the Department of Homeland Security to preserve all evidence related to the fatal shooting of 37‑year‑old ICU nurse Alex Jeffrey Pretti by a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis, escalating a clash between state officials and the Trump administration over accountability for federal agents’ use of force. The temporary restraining order (TRO), issued late Saturday, came after Minnesota authorities said they were blocked from the scene and feared evidence could be destroyed or withheld nbcnews +1.

Pretti was shot shortly after 9 a.m. on January 24 during a federal immigration operation near Nicollet Avenue and 26th Street in south Minneapolis, the second deadly encounter with immigration officers in the city this month, following the January 7 killing of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent axios +1. The death of Pretti, a U.S. citizen and licensed gun owner with a permit to carry, quickly drew crowds of protesters and prompted state and local leaders to accuse federal officials of stonewalling investigators axios +1.

What the Judge’s Order Does — and Why Minnesota Sued

U.S. District Judge Eric C. Tostrud granted the TRO late Saturday after the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and Attorney General Keith Ellison sued DHS, Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol, ICE and several senior officials cnn +1. The order bars federal agencies from “destroying or altering” any evidence related to the shooting, including physical items, documents, audio, video and digital records, and requires them to preserve everything already collected by federal teams at the scene cnn +1. A hearing on whether to extend the order was set for Monday afternoon fox9.

State officials said they turned to federal court after their investigators were initially denied access to the scene and to critical information, echoing complaints after Good’s killing earlier this month usatoday +1. Ellison said Pretti was killed “in broad daylight in front of all of our eyes” and argued that “both the rule of law and the sense of justice we all carry within us demand a full, fair, and transparent investigation” lemonde. Governor Tim Walz backed the lawsuit and called for federal immigration teams to leave Minnesota, saying the state’s justice system “must have the last word on this” axios +1.

Conflicting Accounts, Viral Video and a Growing Pattern

DHS has said agents confronted an armed suspect and that Pretti approached with a 9mm handgun, “violently resisted” efforts to disarm him, and was shot when an agent feared for his life and the safety of others axios +1. Border Patrol officials emphasized that the shooter was “highly trained” with eight years’ experience and defended the operation as necessary amid what they describe as threats and interference with immigration enforcement axios +1. Trump administration surrogates also warned against “judging” the incident from short video clips circulating online kare11.

Bystander videos, however, appeared to show Pretti on the ground, being restrained and disarmed before shots were fired, sharply contradicting federal descriptions and fueling anger among Minneapolis residents and civil‑rights advocates aljazeera +1. The case unfolded against a broader backdrop of heightened federal immigration raids and a rising number of ICE and Border Patrol shootings since late 2025; the earlier killing of Good was described as at least the ninth ICE shooting since September usatoday +1. Advocates have also highlighted that many immigration officers still do not routinely wear body cameras, and that DHS has recently floated cuts to body‑cam funding, deepening concerns about independent documentation in deadly force cases fox9.

The Bigger Picture

The Pretti case has quickly become a flashpoint over who polices federal law‑enforcement on city streets: Washington or the states where agents operate. With competing narratives, viral footage and a rare court order freezing the federal government’s handling of its own evidence, the fight in Minneapolis is testing how far state officials can go to force transparency from immigration agencies whose tactics are drawing mounting scrutiny nationwide nbcnews +2.