Not even the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension knows the names of the federal immigration agents who wrestled Alex Pretti to the ground and fired 10 times at him on Jan. 24.
The Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security have so far refused to cooperate with state investigators and release evidence crucial to understanding the slaying of the 37-year-old Minnesota resident.
That is unacceptable.
Pretti, a nurse and U.S. citizen, died from his wounds on a cold Minneapolis street. Because the agents wore masks as part of their uniform, neither he nor horrified onlookers saw the faces of those who killed him.
That horrifying anonymity represents an equally unacceptable form of masking as Minnesota continues to demand answers about who took Pretti’s life. The agents’ faces aren’t just hidden behind balaclavas. So are their identities, even from Minnesota law enforcement, as federal officials keep secret the names of those involved in the fatal shooting, including the two agents who fired their weapons.