The FBI has taken full control of the investigation into the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (Ice) officer in Minneapolis.
In a statement, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) said it was initially called upon to help investigate the shooting before US federal officials “reversed course” and said the case would be solely led by the FBI.
“Without complete access to the evidence, witnesses and information collected, we cannot meet the investigative standards that Minnesota law and the public demands,” said Drew Evans, the superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
As it now no longer has access to the case materials, witnesses and evidence, Mr Evans said it had “reluctantly” withdrawn from the investigation.
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Tim Walz, Minnesota’s Democratic governor said on Thursday that the Trump administration had blocked state officials from taking part in the investigation.
“It feels now that Minnesota has been taken out of the investigation. It feels very, very difficultthat we will get a fair outcome,” he said.
Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said it was a matter of jurisdiction.
“They have not been cut out,” Ms Noem said at a news conference on Thursday. “They don’t have any jurisdiction in this investigation.”
As tensions escalated in Minneapolis on Thursday, authorities cancelled school classes across the city amid safety concerns and rising political tension after the US citizen was killed by a federal agent during a large-scale immigration enforcement operation.
A demonstration attended by thousands on Wednesday night went peacefully after the fatal shooting hours earlier.
On Thursday morning, scores of people bundled up in heavy coats gathered in a parking lot near a building that houses several federal agencies, including the local Ice headquarters.
The crowd was chanting and holding American flags and signs calling on Ice to leave Minnesota.
Police at one point threw tear gas to break up the crowd, which carried signs and shouted profanities at them.
One of the protesters, Patrick Riley, told the Associated Press: “We are peacefully demonstrating. We’re trying to let this organisation know that they’re not welcome.”
[ ‘Poet, writer, wife, mom’: Who was Renee Nicole Good?Opens in new window ]
Emotions remained high in the city – and across the US – as the Trump administration continued to portray the victim, who was shot multiple times as she drove away from a group of officers, as a “domestic terrorist” bent on running them over.
Jacob Frey, the Minneapolis mayor, made several appearances on television networks Wednesday night calling for peaceful protests and doubling down on his comments at a press conference earlier in the day in which he called for Ice “to get the f**k out of Minneapolis”.
“People are being hurt. Families are being ripped apart. Long-term Minneapolis residents that have contributed so greatly to our city, to our culture, to our economy are being terrorised, and now, somebody is dead,” Mr Frey said.
He said the homeland security department was already “trying to spin this as an action of self-defence”, a claim he said was “bulls**t”.
Some Republicans seized on Mr Frey’s comments as incendiary, with Nancy Mace, a South Carolina congresswoman, calling for the resignation of the mayor and Mr Walz.
Yet much of the political rhetoric continued to come from the White House, with US president Donald Trump telling reporters from the New York Times on Wednesday night that Ms Good, a mother of a six-year-old son, was at fault.
“She behaved horribly,” said Mr Trump, who posted to Truth Social earlier in the day without evidence that she “viciously ran over the Ice officer”.
“And then she ran him over. She didn’t try to run him over. She ran him over,” the president said.
Video of the confrontation, however, showed the agent remaining on his feet and walking away apparently uninjured after the woman’s car had crashed into a lamp-post and a parked vehicle.
[ Minneapolis shooting: One video, two opposite views before the facts are settledOpens in new window ]
Residents in the city, which has a large Somali population, described the mood as “on edge and angry” on Thursday, with more demonstrations planned for later in the day. – Guardian and agencies
