New Details of Inter-Agency Breakdown Emerge After Fatal Shooting By Federal Immigration Officer

On Wednesday, January 7, at approximately 9:37 a.m. local time, Jonathan Ross — a federal officer assigned to immigration enforcement and deportation operations — fatally shot Renee Good. That same day, a senior official with Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) exchanged text messages with a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) counterpart, repeatedly requesting access to evidence collected from the shooting crime scene.

But according to internal records WIRED obtained via a public records request, the FBI failed to respond to those requests for at least two full days.

The released texts were sent shortly before the FBI informed the BCA that the probe into Good’s death would “be led solely by the FBI,” and that the BCA “would no longer have access to the case materials, scene evidence or investigative interviews necessary to complete a thorough and independent investigation,” per the BCA’s account.

These messages offer new context for the total breakdown in communication between the two agencies, which ultimately led the BCA, Hennepin County Attorney’s office, and the state of Minnesota to file a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Department of Justice (the FBI’s parent agency). The suit, filed March 24, demands that federal officials grant state and local law enforcement access to investigative records connected to three separate federal officer-involved shootings: the killing of Good; the fatal shooting of nurse Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents on January 24; and the January 14 shooting that injured Julio Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan Minneapolis resident, at the hands of a federal immigration agent.

“The longstanding practice of cooperation and evidence-sharing between federal and Minnesota law enforcement authorities broke down during DHS’s Operation Metro Surge,” the lawsuit claims, adding that this decades-long partnership “abruptly ended once federal leadership became involved.”

In response to WIRED’s request for all emails, text messages, and digital communications exchanged between the BCA and FBI on January 7 and 8, the BCA provided a screenshot of the text conversation between a top BCA official and an FBI contact (the agency noted “no emails were discovered” matching the request).

The screenshot, obtained by WIRED, appears to have been captured between January 9 and 13, and shows the conversation pulled from an iOS device. The BCA confirms the messages were sent on January 7 by Drew Evans, the agency’s superintendent, to a contact whose name is redacted, but is labeled in Evans’ phone as an “FBI ASAC” — short for assistant special agent in charge. Per the FBI Minneapolis division’s public website, three people currently hold that title at the branch.

The only message sent by the FBI agent was timestamped 11:17 a.m. local time. Most of the message was redacted by the BCA, but it opens with “ERO” — an acronym for Enforcement and Removal Operations, the ICE branch that oversees arrests, detentions, and deportations.

At 12:56 p.m., Evans sent three consecutive messages to the FBI agent:

“Can you be sure with your folks to include us on interviews. It sounds like they have tried to do some and keep us out of them. I know this is a little challenging, but it really helps us to just have one set of interviews/interactions so we have a common understanding of the facts and information.

We are going to cancel crime scene - sounds like a lot of federal agents showed up to confront the crow[d] and it's getting very contentious now. We are in a lot of these in that city and our [special agent in charge] is working with your folks to clear - really unfortunate we did not get this done.

[Redacted] Do you think once they get [things] a little under control today our management teams and team leaders should connect today yet? We could do it at your office at a time that makes sense once they can breathe a bit?”

Protesters began gathering near the site of Good’s killing shortly after news of her death spread publicly. The lawsuit states that on January 7, BCA investigators “trusted that important evidence gathered by federal investigators” — including Good’s car, the ICE agent’s service weapon, and shell casings recovered at the scene — would be made available to them.

“Had BCA investigators known that federal authorities would thereafter refuse them access to evidence collected at the scene, they would have taken different measures to secure the availability of that evidence,” the lawsuit claims.

After receiving no response from the FBI ASAC, Evans sent a follow-up text at 4:29 p.m.: “I think we should do this tonight still unless your team is done for the evening. I'd like to get on the same page on a few things if possible.”

As of the time the text screenshot was captured, the FBI agent had still not replied.

It is unclear exactly when on January 7 the BCA was notified that federal investigators had taken over the full investigation, but a BCA press release published January 8 notes the notification came “later in the afternoon.” The lawsuit further alleges that “less than an hour” after FBI agents told BCA representatives they would be allowed to join interviews with federal officers present at Good’s killing, HSI agents blocked BCA staff from entering the interview room.

“BCA investigators were excluded from interviews, prevented from following standard investigative procedures, and blocked from accessing key physical evidence,” the lawsuit claims.

When the BCA asked the FBI for an explanation, the lawsuit says the FBI referred the agency to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota, who that same evening confirmed to Superintendent Evans “that there would be no joint investigation and no federal cooperation or evidence sharing with state officials.”

The FBI did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment on the case.