Renée Good and Alex Pretti were killed this year (Getty Images)

After months of non-cooperation with Minnesota investigators, the US Department of Justice has finally begun handing over key evidence related to the fatal shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, two US citizens killed by ICE agents during a January immigration operation.

Over the past two weeks, federal prosecutors have transferred hard drives containing body camera footage, witness statements and other investigative materials, along with the SUV Good was driving when she was shot, as reported by the Associated Press.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said at a Monday (13 July) press conference: “The wonderful thing now is we have all the evidence. We don’t have to speculate about what we don’t have, so that certainly makes our analysis easier.”

Attorneys representing both families welcomed the development, though they also criticised the prolonged delay. A spokesperson for Steve Schleicher, who represents the Pretti family, accused US Attorney for Minnesota Daniel Rosen of failing to provide even basic answers about the case, as per the Minnesota Star Tribune. Schleicher also said in a statement that no family “should be required to beg federal authorities to do their job.”

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison was even more direct, saying in a Monday statement that he was “deeply troubled that the federal government spent more than half a year attempting to conceal this evidence from state investigators”.

In March, Minnesota sued the Trump administration, arguing that federal agencies were deliberately withholding evidence to shield law enforcement officers from scrutiny while the state independently investigated possible criminal violations. At the time, officials described the federal government’s refusal to cooperate as unprecedented.

Good and Pretti were both killed during Operation Metro Surge, described as the largest immigration enforcement operation in US history. Neither had a criminal record, and both were US citizens. According to the Associated Press, at least nine people have been killed during the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations since last year, yet no ICE agent has been criminally charged in connection with any of those deaths.

The evidence transfer comes as fresh questions are being raised about two more recent fatal ICE shootings. Prosecutors in Houston, Texas, say federal authorities are again refusing to provide key information following the death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo last week, while on Monday, federal agents in Maine fatally shot 26-year-old Colombian father Joan Sebastian Guerrero, who reports indicate was not even the intended target of the operation.