A US federal immigration officer shot and killed a man in Minneapolis, drawing hundreds of protesters onto the frigidly cold streets in a city already shaken by another fatal shooting weeks earlier.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said a 37-year-old man was killed but declined to identify him. He added that information about what led up to the shooting was limited.
The man was identified by his parents as Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse.
The Minnesota National Guard, which had been activated earlier by Governor Tim Walz, was assisting local police amid growing protests.
Guard troops are going to both the shooting site and to a federal building where officials have squared off with protesters daily.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that federal officers were conducting an operation as part of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown and fired “defensive shots” after a man with a handgun approached them and “violently resisted” when officers tried to disarm him.
O'Hara said police believe the man was a “lawful gun owner with a permit to carry.” The officer who shot the man is an eight-year Border Patrol veteran, federal officials said.
Several bystander videos of the shooting emerged soon after. Pretti is seen with a phone in his hand but none appears to show him with a visible weapon.
US President Donald Trump weighed in on social media by lashing out at Minnesota’s governor and the Minneapolis mayor.
Trump shared images of the gun that immigration officials said was recovered and said: “What is that all about? Where are the local Police?
"Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers?”
Trump, a Republican, said the Democratic governor and mayor are “are inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric.”
The man killed was an ICU nurse, family says
Family members say the man killed was an intensive care nurse at the US Veterans Administration who was upset by Trump’s immigration crackdown in his city.
Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, was an avid outdoorsman who loved getting in adventures with Joule, his beloved Catahoula Leopard dog, who also recently died.
He had participated in protests following the killing of Renee Good by a US Immigration and Customs Law Enforcement officer earlier this month.
“He cared about people deeply and he was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the United States with ICE, as millions of other people are upset,” said Michael Pretti, Alex’s father.
“He felt that doing the protesting was a way to express that, you know, his care for others.”
Pretti was a US citizen, born in Illinois.
Like Good, court records showed he had no criminal record and his family said he had never had any interactions with law enforcement beyond a couple of traffic tickets.
In a recent conversation with their son, his parents, who live in Wisconsin, told him to be careful when protesting.
“We had this discussion with him two weeks ago or so, you know, that go ahead and protest, but do not engage, do not do anything stupid, basically,” Michael Pretti said.
“And he said he knows that. He knew that.”
The Department of Homeland Security said that the man was shot after he “approached” US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun.
Officials did not specify if Pretti brandished the gun, and it is not visible in bystander video of the shooting obtained by The Associated Press.
Family members said Pretti owned a handgun and had a permit to carry a concealed handgun in Minnesota. They said they had never known him to carry it.
The family first learned of the shooting when they were called by an Associated Press reporter. They watched the video and said the man killed appeared to be their son. They then tried reaching out to officials in Minnesota.
“I can’t get any information from anybody,” Michael Pretti said Saturday. “The police, they said call Border Patrol, Border Patrol’s closed, the hospitals won’t answer any questions?”
Eventually, the family called the Hennepin County Medical Examiner, who they said confirmed had a body matching the name and description of their son.
Video shows officers, man who was shot
In a bystander video obtained by The Associated Press, protesters can be heard blowing whistles and shouting profanities at agents on Nicollet Avenue.
The video shows an officer shoving a person who is wearing a brown jacket, skirt and black tights and carrying a water bottle.
That person reaches out for a man and the two link up, embracing. The man, wearing a brown jacket and black hat, seems to be holding his phone up toward the officer.
The same officer shoves the man in his chest and the two, still embracing, fall back.
The video then shifts to a different part of the street and then comes back to the two individuals unlinking from each other.
The video shifts focus again and then shows three officers surrounding the man.
Soon at least seven officers surround the man.
One is on the man’s back and another who appears to have a canister in his hand strikes a blow to the man’s chest.
Several officers try to bring the man’s arms behind his back as he appears to resist. As they pull his arms, his face is briefly visible on camera. The officer with the canister strikes the man near his head several times.
A shot rings out, but with officers surrounding the man, it’s not clear from where the shot came. Multiple officers back off of the man after the shot. More shots are heard. Officers back away and the man lies motionless on the street.
The police chief appealed for calm, both from the public and and from federal law enforcement.
“Our demand today is for those federal agencies that are operating in our city to do so with the same discipline, humanity and integrity that effective law enforcement in this country demands,” the chief said.
“We urge everyone to remain peaceful."
Customs and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino said the officer who shot the man had extensive training as a range safety officer and in using less-lethal force.
“This is only the latest attack on law enforcement. Across the country, the men and women of DHS have been attacked, shot at,” he said.
Walz said he had no confidence in federal officials and that the state would lead the investigation into the latest fatal shooting.
Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said during a news conference Saturday that federal officers blocked his agency from the shooting scene, and when they returned with a signed judicial warrant, they were still blocked.
Protests continue in Minneapolis
Protesters continued to converge at the scene of the shooting despite dangerously cold weather.
At Saturday midday, the worst of an extreme cold wave was over, but the temperature was still -21 degrees Celsius.
The Arctic blast hadn’t deterred thousands of protesters from marching downtown Minneapolis on Friday afternoon to call for ICE to leave the Minnesota.”
The shooting happened amid widespread daily protests in the Twin Cities since the January 7 shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good, who was killed when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fired into her vehicle.
Saturday's shooting unfolded just over a mile away from where Good was shot.
After the shooting, an angry crowd gathered and screamed profanities at federal officers, calling them “cowards” and telling them to go home.
Federal officials claimed the shooting was an act of self-defence, but Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey described it as "reckless" and unnecessary. (Source: Reuters)
One officer responded mockingly as he walked away, telling them: “Boo hoo.”
Agents elsewhere shoved a yelling protester into a car. Protesters dragged garbage dumpsters from alleyways to block the streets, and people who gathered chanted, “ICE out now,” referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“They’re killing my neighbors!” said Minneapolis resident Josh Koskie.
Federal officers wielded batons and deployed flash bangs on the crowd.
Walz said he had been in contact with the White House after the shooting. He urged President Donald Trump to end what the Department of Homeland Security has called its largest-ever immigration enforcement operation.
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