MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A federal immigration agent fatally shot a man Saturday in Minneapolis, prompting hundreds of protesters to fill the city’s frigid streets in a town already rattled by another fatal shooting just weeks earlier.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said a 37-year-old man died, but he declined to identify him. He added that there is little information about the shooting’s causes. The man was identified by his parents as Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse.
The Minnesota National Guard, activated by Governor Tim Walz, assisted local police amid the growing protests. Guard troops moved to the scene of the shooting and to a federal building where officials have faced daily demonstrations.
The Homeland Security Department spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, said in a statement that the agents were conducting an operation as part of the administration’s immigration crackdown and fired “defensive shots” after a man armed with a pistol approached them and “resisted violently” when they tried to disarm him. O’Hara said police believe the man was a “lawful gun owner with a carry permit.” The agent who shot him has eight years of service with Border Patrol, according to federal sources.
Shortly after, several videos of the shooting emerged from bystanders. Pretti appears to be holding a phone, but none of the footage seems to show him with a visible weapon.
President Donald Trump weighed in on social media, criticizing Minnesota’s governor and Minneapolis’s mayor.
Trump shared images of the pistol that, according to immigration officials, was recovered, and he asked: “What is this? Where is local police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE agents?”
The Republican president said the Democratic governor and mayor “are inciting an insurrection, with their loud, dangerous and arrogant rhetoric.”
In a video from a bystander obtained by The Associated Press, protesters can be heard blowing whistles and shouting insults at the officers on Nicollet Avenue.
The video shows a uniformed officer pushing a man wearing a brown jacket, a skirt and black tights while the man holds a water bottle. The man moves toward the officer and the two appear to embrace. The man, wearing a brown jacket and a black hat, seems to be holding his phone toward the officer.
The same uniformed officer pushes the man in the chest, and the two, still embracing, stumble backward.
The video then shifts to another part of the street and returns to the two individuals separating. The footage then shifts focus again and shows three officers surrounding the man.
Soon, at least seven agents converge on the man. One is on his back, and another who appears to be holding a can strikes his chest. Several officers try to restrain his arms from behind as he seems to resist. As they pull his arms, his face briefly comes into view on camera. The officer with the can hits the man near the head several times.
A shot is heard, but with the officers around the man it is not clear where it originated. Several uniformed officers move away from the man after the shot. More shots ring out. The police back away and the man lies motionless in the street.
The police chief urged the community to stay calm, both the public and the federal authorities.
“Our demand today is that those federal agencies operating in our city do so with the same discipline, humanity and integrity that the effective enforcement of the law requires in this country,” the chief said. “We urge everyone to remain peaceful.”
Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino said the officer who shot the man had extensive training as a field security guard and in the use of less-lethal force.
“This is just the latest assault on law enforcement. Across the country, Homeland Security personnel have been attacked, shot,” he asserted.
Walz said he has no trust in federal authorities and that the state would lead the investigation into the latest shooting.
Drew Evans, the head of Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, told reporters Saturday that federal agents blocked Minnesota officials from accessing the scene, and when they returned with a signed warrant, they were not allowed to approach.
Protesters continued to gather at the shooting site despite the dangerously cold weather.
By Saturday noon, the worst of the cold snap had passed, but temperatures remained at minus 21 degrees Celsius (minus 6 degrees Fahrenheit). The Arctic chill did not deter thousands of protesters from marching through downtown Minneapolis on Friday to demand the removal of ICE from Minnesota.
The shooting occurred amid daily protests in the Twin Cities since January 7, when Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother, was killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fired into her vehicle. Saturday’s shooting happened a little more than a mile from the Good incident.
Following the shooting, a furious crowd gathered and hurled insults at federal agents, calling them “cowards” and urging them to go home. One officer responded mockingly as he walked away, mimicking a child’s sob. Elsewhere, officers shoved a protester into a car. Protesters dragged trash cans from alleys to block the streets, and those gathered chanted: “Out ICE now!” in reference to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement service.
“They’re killing my neighbors!” said Josh Koskie, a Minneapolis resident.
Federal agents wielded batons and fired stun grenades at the crowd.
Walz said he had spoken with the White House after the shooting. He urged President Donald Trump to end what the Department of Homeland Security has called his largest migrant-enforcement operation.
