Minneapolis live updates: ICE arrest powers expanded, memo says

The Hennepin County Attorney’s office and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension have filed a lawsuit attempting to “prevent the destruction of evidence related to the shooting of Alex Pretti,” the officials said in a press release Saturday.

According to court documents, they’re asking a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order that would prevent officials at the Department of Homeland Security, including DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, as well as Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel from "from destroying or failing to preserve evidence" related to the shooting.

In court filings, local officials accuse officials of hastily removing evidence from the scene of the shooting, reportedly seizing cell phones and detaining witnesses as federal agents ordered Minnesota law enforcement to leave the scene.

“A full, impartial, and transparent investigation into his fatal shooting at the hands of DHS agents is non-negotiable," Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement. "Minnesota law enforcement is currently carrying out such an investigation, and it is essential that the evidence collected by federal agents is preserved and turned over to state officials. Today’s lawsuit aims to bar the federal government from destroying or tampering with any of the evidence they have collected. Justice will be done.”

-ABC News' Armando Garcia

In new court filings Saturday night, city attorneys for Minneapolis and St. Paul are painting a picture of the chaotic moments that ensued after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti and are asking a judge to take immediate action to temporarily restrain federal agents’ tactics and to declare the deployment of thousands of federal immigration agents unlawful.

In a sworn declaration, Minneapolis Assistant City Attorney Heather Robertson said federal agents initially asked Minneapolis police officers to leave the scene after the shooting, “but MPD stayed to hold the crime scene.” Robertson said an MPD officer rode in the ambulance with Alex Pretti and that as Border Patrol and ICE agents began to line up wearing riot gear, at least one 911 caller requested assurance that Minneapolis police officers were on the scene.

She also said that in the minutes after the shooting, “Minneapolis 911 callers also reported that ICE agents were attempting to detain 30 bystanders.”

City officials for both Minneapolis and St. Paul submitted a letter to the court asking Judge Katherine Menendez to reconsider her decision to convert a request for a temporary restraining order into a motion for preliminary injunction and to take immediate action.

“We need the Court to act to stop this Surge before yet another resident dies because of Operation Metro Surge,” wrote the solicitor general, the Minneapolis city attorney, and the St. Paul city attorney.

-ABC News' Armando Garcia

The second fatal shooting this month of an American citizen in Minneapolis at the hands of a federal agent has ratcheted up tensions in the city once again -- and led to disputed accounts of what happened.

Alex Pretti, 37, an ICU nurse at a VA hospital who the Minneapolis police chief said was licensed to carry a concealed weapon, was fatally shot by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent on the morning of Jan. 24.

Local officials have disputed this characterization of events leading to Pretti's shooting and criticized federal officials, accusing them of rushing to "spin" the story. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Patrol Commander at Large Greg Bovino have claimed, without providing further evidence, that Pretti arrived at the scene "to inflict maximum damage on individuals." Noem told reporters that his actions amounted to "domestic terrorism." 

An unnamed witness provided more details in a federal court filing Saturday night about the shooting in Minneapolis of 37-year-old Alex Pretti.

The witness, whose name was redacted in court documents, said immigration agents pepper-sprayed three observers, including Pretti, before an agent shoved a woman to the ground.

"More agents came over and grabbed the man who was still trying to help the woman get up."

The witness said that agents pushed Pretti to the ground and added that "it didn't look like he was trying to resist, just trying to help the woman up."

"They threw him to the ground. Four or five agents had him on the ground and they just started shooting him," the witness said. "They shot him so many times."

The witness said they recorded a video that "accurately depicts the events leading up to the agents shooting him and several minutes afterwards."

The declaration was filed Saturday by the ACLU of Minnesota as part of an emergency motion to lift a stay on a federal judge's order that barred immigration agents from arresting protesters or using nonlethal weapons against them.

-ABC News' Laura Romero and Luke Barr