The FBI did not respond to text messages from Minnesota investigators for several days after Renee Goode was killed

On Wednesday, January 7, Federal Immigration and Deportation Enforcement Officer Jonathan Ross Rene Goode was shot and killed at approximately 9:37 a.m. local time. On the same day, an official from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) sent a text message to his FBI counterpart, repeatedly requesting access to crime scene evidence.

But according to records obtained by WIRED through a public records request, the FBI did not respond for at least two days.

The text messages appear to have been sent shortly before the FBI, according to The Verge Basic Cooperation AgreementHe told the agency that the investigation into Judd’s death “will be led solely by the FBI” and that the FBI “will no longer have access to case materials, crime scene evidence, or investigative interviews necessary to complete a comprehensive, independent investigation.”

The transcripts provide new insight into the breakdown in communication between the two agencies that ultimately contributed to the BCA, the Hennepin County district attorney, and the state of Minnesota filing a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, which includes the FBI. the lawsuitfiled March 24, requires federal authorities to grant state and local law enforcement access to investigative materials related to Good’s shooting; Alex Pretty, a nurse who was shot and killed by Border Patrol agents on January 24; and Julio Sosa Celis, a Venezuelan national residing in Minneapolis who was shot and wounded by a federal immigration agent on January 14.

“The long-standing practice of cooperation and sharing of evidence between federal and Minnesota law enforcement authorities broke down during DHS’s Operation Metro Surge,” the lawsuit alleges, adding that this partnership “abruptly ended once federal leadership became involved.”

In response to WIRED’s request for all emails, text messages and digital communications the agency exchanged with the FBI on January 7 and 8, the day the public record request was filed, the agency provided an image showing the texts exchanged between a senior BCA official and the FBI. (The agency added that “no emails were discovered.”)

The image obtained by WIRED, which appears to have been taken between January 9 and 13, shows text messages that appear to be sent from an iOS device. The BCA says the texts were sent on Jan. 7 by Drew Evans, the agency’s supervisor, to an individual whose name was redacted but who was identified in Evans’ device as “FBI ASAC,” or assistant special agent in charge. The FBI’s Minneapolis branch currently has three people with that title, according to the FBI Website.

The only text sent by the FBI agent was delivered at 11:17 a.m. local time. The letter has been mostly redacted by BCA, but begins with “ERO” — an apparent reference to Enforcement and Removal Operations, the branch of ICE that oversees arrests, detentions and deportations.

At 12:56 p.m., Evans sent three messages to the FBI agent in quick succession.

“Can you make sure your parents include us in the interviews?” Evans began. “It seems like they tried to do some things and take us away from it. I know this is a bit challenging, but it really helps us to have just one set of interviews/interactions so we have a common understanding of the facts and information.”

“We’re going to cancel the crime scene – apparently a lot of federal agents showed up to confront the crow and it’s getting very controversial now,” Evans wrote in the second text. “We are in a lot of these areas in that city and (our special agent in charge) is working with your folks to clear them up — it’s really unfortunate that we didn’t get that done.”

The beginning of Evans’ next letter has been redacted, but likely includes the name of the FBI agent. “Do you think that once (things) are under control a little bit today, our management teams and team leaders should communicate today yet?” Evans wrote in the third text. “We can do it in your office at a time that makes sense once they can breathe a little?”

The demonstrators started pool Near the site of Jude’s murder shortly after news of her death spread. The lawsuit that BCA eventually co-filed claims that on Jan. 7, its investigators had “confidence that critical evidence collected by federal investigators” — including Good’s car, an ICE agent’s gun, and shell casings at the scene — would be available to them.