Minneapolis, Minnesota: Alex Pretti's Parents Hold First News Conference and Say the Justice Department Is Withholding Evidence

The parents of Alex Pretti spoke publicly for the first time on Tuesday, holding a news conference in Minneapolis and accusing the Justice Department of withholding evidence from the Minnesota prosecutors investigating their son's death. Pretti, 37, an intensive care unit nurse and a United States citizen, was shot and killed by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis in January, during protests against the enforcement surge in the city.

"Our experience with the Department of Justice has left us wondering how Alex will ever get justice," his father, Michael Pretti, said. "Do your job and stop shielding Alex's killers." His mother, Susan Pretti, said: "It has been a miserable year for our family. All we want is justice for Alex and that the federal government treat us with the dignity and respect that our son deserves."

A July letter the family says went unanswered

In a July letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche, obtained by CNN, an attorney for Michael and Susan Pretti said the family has received no substantive updates about the investigation and called the department's attitude "cruel." The family accuses the department of violating a federal victims' rights law.

The letter asks the Justice Department to identify the employees who shot Pretti, share information with state investigators, confirm whether the FBI is still investigating, and return Pretti's property that is no longer needed as evidence. "No family should have to beg the U.S. government to do its job," it says. "I've never seen a family treated with such cruelty and disrespect," he said.

The fight over the evidence file

Moriarty launched a criminal investigation soon after Pretti's death. In March, she sued the Trump administration for access to evidence in the killings of Pretti and Renee Good, who was fatally shot on Jan. 7, and in the Jan. 14 non-lethal shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis.

Moriarty said in July that the federal government was handing over "voluminous" evidence. Her office then found that "some information had been withheld," she said earlier this month in a declaration filed in federal district court in Washington. Court records filed on Oct. 13 say county prosecutors cannot access evidence such as the weapons used to shoot Pretti.

Federal prosecutors say they are not obligated to release more evidence because Moriarty's office has not yet initiated legal proceedings. The Justice Department told Reuters that communications with family members come at a later stage of a case and do not typically occur during an investigation.

What the video showed in January

Pretti was killed on Jan. 24. Administration officials defended the Border Patrol agents who killed him and said he was trying to attack agents with a handgun he carried legally. Then Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem initially called him a "terrorist" who "attacked" officers, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called him an "assassin."

Bystander video showed Pretti with a phone in his hand, trying to help a protester who had been pushed to the ground, when agents pinned him down and shot him. CNN's account says an agent removed Pretti's gun from his waistband, and about a second later an officer fired several shots, followed by shots from another agent. At least 10 gunshots can be heard.

"No one from the federal government called us on that horrible day, but they did go on TV to tell lies about Alex," Michael Pretti said. Susan Pretti told CNN: "It's difficult to get up every day, to function, to be a parent, knowing that your child's never coming home."