Minnesota officials are being restrained from investigating ICE shooting: Reports

Mutual distrust between federal and state authorities derailed plans for a joint FBI and state criminal investigation into Wednesday's shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an ICE officer, leading to the highly unusual move by the Justice Department to block state investigators from participating in the probe, reports CNN. 

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said Thursday that after an initial agreement for the FBI to work with the state agency, as well as prosecutors from the US Attorney's office in Minneapolis and the Hennepin County Attorney's Office, to investigate the shooting, federal authorities reversed course and the FBI blocked the BCA from participating in the investigation. 

Behind the move to sever ties were concerns in the Trump administration that state officials couldn't be trusted with information that emerges from the probe, and that ICE agents' safety would be put at risk, including with potential doxxing of agents involved, two people familiar with the matter told CNN. 

The mistrust goes both ways, as state officials attacked the conduct of ICE agents and raised concerns that federal authorities can't be trusted to fairly investigate given public statements from President Donald Trump and other administration officials accusing the woman killed of being a domestic terrorist. 

Minnesota officials have lambasted ICE as "reckless," calling comments defending the officers who fired the shot as "bullshit," and calling the deployment of ICE in Minnesota a threat to the "endurance of our republic." Comments like these, the sources said, have fueled the distrust.

The unilateral decision cut off state law enforcement from access to evidence that may show whether the ICE officer responsible for the fatal shooting could, or should, be criminally charged. 

In the past, federal and local law enforcement have worked together to meticulously gather evidence, conduct interviews and share information in cases of officer-involved killings. Like in the investigation into the killing of Minneapolis' George Floyd, local law enforcement was focused on bringing state murder charges, while the federal investigation focused on whether civil rights laws were violated.