Immigration

FBI takes over investigation into fatal shooting of Renee Good

portland avenue
Willeima Leone places a flower at the memorial for Renee Good on Thursday.
Ben Hovland | MPR News

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said Thursday it’s no longer part of the investigation into the killing of a woman in Minneapolis by an ICE agent.

Authorities on Wednesday said the BCA would be working jointly with the FBI on the investigation. BCA agents went to the scene Wednesday believing they’d play a role.

But in a statement Thursday, the BCA said the FBI reversed course and that the federal agency would be the sole investigative unit.

That means the BCA will no longer have access to the case materials, scene evidence or investigative interviews necessary to complete a thorough and independent investigation, the state agency said.

“Without complete access to the evidence, witnesses and information collected, we cannot meet the investigative standards that Minnesota law and the public demands,” the BCA added.

Later in the morning at a press conference, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the BCA did not have jurisdiction and had not been cut out of the investigation.

Walz on Thursday questioned whether an investigation into the shooting of a woman by an ICE agent Wednesday in Minneapolis could be fair and impartial with only the FBI in charge.

Authorities said Wednesday that the FBI and Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension would work jointly on the probe, but the BCA said Thursday the FBI reversed course and that the federal agency would be the sole investigative unit.

The BCA said the FBI had shut out the state agents’ access to evidence, witnesses and information collected.

“Minnesota must be part of this investigation,” Walz told reporters late Thursday morning, noting that the BCA has significant expertise in probing shootings by law enforcement.

“It feels now that Minnesota has been taken out of the investigation. It feels very, very difficult that we will get a fair outcome” with the FBI solely in charge, he said, adding that President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “have told you things that are verifiably false.”

Walz said Noem and others have already prejudged the outcome of the investigation. Noem, he added, “was basically judge, jury and executioner" in her comments Wednesday.

Walz continued to plead for people to protest peacefully, saying the Trump administration was looking for an excuse to bring troops into the region.

He said he was particularly distressed about federal agents descending on Minneapolis Roosevelt High School Wednesday, saying, “I beg you, implore you to tell them to stay out of our schools.”