Federal officials are now taking a closer look at a Minneapolis shooting that had initially been left in the hands of the agency whose officers opened fire. The Justice Department on Friday said it has launched a civil rights investigation into the shooting of Alex Pretti by federal agents last weekend, reports the Washington Post. "We're looking at everything that would shed light on that day," said Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who also sought to downplay the significance of the move.
"I don't want to overstate what's happening," Blanche said. "I don't want the takeaway to be that there's some massive civil rights investigation that's happening. This is what I would describe as a standard investigation by the FBI when there are circumstances like what we saw last Saturday." Still, the New York Times sees the development as a "significant" shift. Initially, the investigation had been left with investigators from the Homeland Security department, and it was to have a narrow focus on whether the officers involved in the shooting violated internal protocol. Lawmakers from both parties criticized that idea.
Blanche rebuffed questions on why no civil rights investigation followed the earlier shooting of Renee Good. "Cases are handled differently by this department depending on the circumstances," he said. Meanwhile, Politico notes that President Trump on Friday seemed to take a harsher view of Pretti than he has in the past, describing him on Truth Social as an "agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist." Trump cited video that surfaced of a previous altercation between Pretti and federal officers.
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