DOJ Says No Basis For Criminal Civil Rights Probe Into Minneapolis ICE Officer Shooting

The Department of Justice announced Tuesday that it will not open a criminal civil rights investigation into the fatal shooting of Renee Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Minneapolis, a senior department official said.

The decision departs from recent practice: previous administrations have frequently launched Justice Department civil rights reviews after deadly encounters with law enforcement, even when criminal charges were considered unlikely. According to two people familiar with internal deliberations who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, lawyers in the Civil Rights Division were informed last week that they would not take part in the inquiry at this time.

The DOJ is breaking from a longstanding precedent of swift civil rights investigations.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche: "There is currently no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation."

The department did not detail how it reached that conclusion. Federal officials have said the ICE officer acted in self-defense after Good moved her vehicle forward toward him; some federal sources described the driver's actions as "an act of domestic terrorism." The lack of a Civil Rights Division review while other probes continue has raised concerns among local officials and civil rights advocates about whether a full, independent examination will take place.

Minnesota officials have alleged that federal authorities blocked state investigators from accessing evidence and have argued the state lacks jurisdiction to conduct an independent probe, according to the AP. A Justice Department official told Fox News Digital that each law enforcement agency follows its own internal protocol for officer-involved shootings and that ICE's Office of Professional Responsibility (ICE OPR) is conducting an internal investigation that runs parallel to any FBI inquiry.

Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration.

The announcement was followed by a wave of departures among federal prosecutors and supervisors connected to related matters. About half a dozen prosecutors from the Minnesota U.S. Attorney's Office resigned in recent days, and several supervisors in the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division in Washington also left, people familiar with the situation said. Among those who departed was First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson, who had been overseeing major fraud prosecutions in Minnesota.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey sharply criticized the department's actions on social media, saying: "These prosecutors are heroes, and the people pushing to prosecute Renee's widow are monsters." He also warned that the departures have hindered the office's work on fraud prosecutions. The Justice Department has denied that the resignations are connected to the Minneapolis case, saying the prosecutors had applied to participate in an early retirement program before the events surrounding the shooting.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.