Six career federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned this Tuesday, 13th, after pressure from the United States Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation against the widow of the woman killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, while the shooter himself was not investigated. The information is from The New York Timeswho heard from people with direct knowledge of the decision.
Among the prosecutors who left their positions is Joseph H. Thompson, then number two in the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office in Minnesota and responsible for a broad investigation of fraud involving social programs in the State.
According to the newspaper, Thompson opposed the demand to investigate Becca Good, widow of Renee Nicole Good, killed last week in Minneapolis during an action by ICE agents, and also criticized the Justice Department’s refusal to determine whether the use of force was legal.
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After the shooting, the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Harmeet Dhillon, informed internally that she would not open a federal investigation to assess whether the agent had violated the law. Instead, the department began examining the victim’s widow’s ties to groups that monitor and protest the actions of immigration agents. The Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, even publicly referred to the victim as a “domestic terrorist”.
In addition to Thompson, other senior prosecutors have also resigned, including Harry Jacobs, Melinda Williams and Thomas Calhoun-Lopez. None of them publicly commented on the reasons for their departures, and the Justice Department did not respond to the newspaper’s requests for clarification.
Reneé was shot dead by a United States immigration agent during an operation carried out last Wednesday, 7th, in Minneapolis, the city where George Floyd was murdered by local police in 2020. Hundreds of people protested against the death of the woman, mother of three children. Good, his 6-year-old son and his wife had recently moved from Kansas City, Missouri, to Minneapolis.
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A video recorded by passers-by and posted on social media shows an officer approaching her car, demanding that she open the door and grabbing the handle. As it begins to advance, another ICE agent who was in front of the vehicle pulls out his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots at the vehicle at close range.
On Monday, the Minnesota attorney general and the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul filed a lawsuit in federal court calling for an end to the operation, alleging abuses and civil rights violations. Last Thursday, the 9th, a new shooting involving federal agents was recorded in Portland, Oregon, leaving two people injured.
