She said she understands why agencies want to keep an undercover officer's name secret. Typically, Cerra said, undercover officers are not the ones to make arrests, as that would mean outing themselves as law enforcement agents. The BCA said investigators found a gun and spent cartridge casings in the car while executing two search warrants.Ībigail Cerra, a volunteer member of the Minneapolis Police Oversight Commission, said it's unusual that two undercover officers would be sent out together on a high-profile arrest in the middle of the day. She also told her lawyers that the officers did not identify themselves as law enforcement agents after they surrounded her and Smith in unmarked cars. She claims officers opened fire after he raised his cellphone to videotape the encounter. Smith's passenger, Norhan Askar, said she never saw Smith with a firearm, despite the BCA's statement that he produced a gun when confronted. The two officers, deputized from the Hennepin and Ramsey County sheriff's offices to serve on the federal task force, were working undercover when Smith was shot in Minneapolis' Uptown neighborhood on June 3. The BCA declined to comment on an 'open and active' case. He referred additional questions back to the BCA, which is investigating the case. Oney said officers deputized by the marshals might have undercover duties for their local agencies, but did not elaborate as to why task forces would choose to deputize local undercover officers - and risk blowing their covers - rather than non-undercover agents. Marshals Service task force members do not generally operate in any undercover capacities,' spokesman Dave Oney wrote in an e-mail to the Star Tribune. marshals' office in Minneapolis directed all questions to the Washington, D.C., public affairs department. The marshals began phasing in this policy in February 2021, according to a statement released in early June, but there was no explanation for the delay in implementing the policy in Minnesota. Department of Justice ruled in October 2020 that deputized members of federal task forces could wear them. marshals in Minnesota are not yet allowed to wear body cameras. It's unclear why officers deputized by the U.S. The officers were not wearing body cameras, and no other video footage has publicly emerged. Officers who shoot someone in the line of duty usually aren't criminally charged, and without strong evidence, such as video footage showing misconduct, it's even harder to establish criminality. 'You've got a bunch of cops, basically, who are gonna say, 'I saw he had a gun, I was afraid for my life, and I fired.' Or, 'I saw he had a gun, and I saw the other officer take him out.' ' 'I'm not quite sure how a criminal case comes out of this,' Gemberling said. That's unlikely though, given the lack of video evidence, said Don Gemberling, who serves on the board of the Minnesota Coalition on Government Information and helped craft the state public records law that shields the officers' names. One scenario could allow release of the names - if the officers are criminally charged.

Tim Walz to open an independent investigation into the shooting, which has brought a new wave of demands for police accountability more than a year after Minneapolis police killed George Floyd. 'The government has a privilege to conceal the identities of officers acting in undercover capacity,' said John Marti, a former federal prosecutor in Minnesota.Īctivists have demanded that the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension release more information about the shooting, including the names of the officers.

Minnesota and federal laws call for concealment of the names of officers working undercover, and the legal hurdles against their release are high - especially since they were deputized as federal agents by the U.S. It's unlikely that the names of the officers who fatally shot Winston Smith atop a Minneapolis parking ramp last month will ever be made public.

Winston smith mn criminal record