DOJ doing civil rights investigation of Pretti killing after all

The Department of Justice is pursuing a civil rights investigation into the killing of Alex Pretti, reversing a decision that had drawn criticism, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Friday.

Blanche said the department is looking into the facts leading up to the Jan. 24 shooting of Pretti by Department of Homeland Security officers and talking to witnesses who were at the scene.

MS NOW previously reported that investigations were being pursued by two units of DHS, and that the DOJ would not pursue a civil rights investigation. Blanche said the DOJ is “coordinating with [DHS]” on its investigation.

“We’re not working against them, but there’s, I suppose, potentially separate goals, or potential goals in the two investigations,” he said.

Blanche added that there will not be a civil rights investigation into the killing of Renee Good by a DHS officer earlier this month.

“There has to be circumstances or facts, or maybe unknown facts, but certainly circumstances that warrant an investigation,” he said.

That news is one of several changes to the investigation.

The FBI is now leading the investigation due to the fact that Pretti had a handgun on him at the time he was killed, a DHS spokesperson told MS NOW — although that fact that Pretti was armed has been publicly known from the outset.

Also, two sources familiar with the situation told MS NOW the acting chief of the FBI field office in Minnesota, Jarrard Smith, has been removed by FBI headquarters. Smith’s reassignment comes amid several agents in the field office having disputes with FBI superiors and Justice Department political leadership over the push to arrest people protesting immigration raids, the sources said on condition on anonymity, as well as the department’s decision not to pursue a civil rights investigation into the fatal shooting of Good.

In a social media post Friday morning, Trump called Pretti an “agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist,” pointing to newly released video showing Pretti clashing with federal immigration officers over a week before his killing.

At the Thursday night’s Kennedy Center premiere of the “Melania” documentary about the first lady, Trump said he has no plans to pull federal agents from Minneapolis, despite what Gov. Tim Walz said the president told him earlier this week.

News of the civil rights probe came as Minnesotans set out on another wide-scale day of protest against federal immigration operations Friday, with organizers calling for a general strike across the state and beyond.

The “national shutdown” calls for people to stay home from work and school, avoid making purchases and demand an end to funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Simultaneous demonstrations were being held in Minnesota and numerous other states Friday afternoon.

Carol Leonnig contributed to this report.