MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Local leaders and Democrats across the country demanded federal immigration officers leave Minnesota after a Border Patrol agent fatally shot a man in Minneapolis and set off clashes with protesters in a city already shaken by another shooting death weeks earlier.
The latest shooting has sparked a legal fight over control of the investigation amid the immigration surge that has swept across Minneapolis and surrounding cities.
Video shot by bystanders and reviewed by The Associated Press appears to contradict statements by President Donald Trump’s administration, which said agents fired “defensively” against , a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse, as he approached them Saturday morning.
Pretti can be seen with only a phone in his hand as he steps between an immigration agent and a woman on the street. No footage appears to show him with a weapon. During the scuffle, agents appear to disarm him after discovering that he was carrying a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun, and then opened fire several times. Pretti was licensed to carry a concealed weapon.
In the hours after the shooting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti attacked officers, and U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino said he wanted to “massacre law enforcement.” On X, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller called Pretti “a would-be assassin.”
Relatives say they are heartbroken
Pretti’s family said they were “heartbroken but also very angry” at authorities, calling Pretti a kindhearted soul who wanted to make a difference in the world. Relatives were furious at federal officials’ description of the shooting.
“The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed,” the family statement said. “Please get the truth out about our son.”
A federal judge has already blocking the Trump administration from “destroying or altering evidence” related to the shooting, after state and county officials sued.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said the lawsuit filed Saturday is meant to preserve evidence collected by federal officials that state authorities have not yet been able to inspect. A court hearing is scheduled for Monday in federal court in St. Paul.
“A full, impartial, and transparent investigation into his fatal shooting at the hands of DHS agents is nonnegotiable,” Ellison said in a statement.
Spokespersons for the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security, which are named in the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Sunday.
Drew Evans, superintendent of the state's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which investigates police shootings, told reporters Saturday that federal officers blocked his agency from the scene of the shooting even after it obtained a signed judicial warrant.
On Sunday morning, though, bureau officers were working at the scene.
The Minnesota ɫtv Guard temporarily assisted local police at the direction of Gov. Tim Walz, officials said, with troops sent to the shooting site and a federal building where officers have squared off daily with demonstrators.
But Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Sunday morning on CBS' "Face the Nation" that “it’s back to just the Minneapolis police responding to calls.”
O'Hara said he had seen no evidence that Pretti brandished the pistol, and that the crackdown was exhausting his department.
“This is taking an enormous toll, trying to manage all this chaos on top of having to be the police department for a major city. It’s too much,” he said.
Gun groups defend right to carry weapon at protests
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem questioned during a news conference Saturday why Pretti was armed. But gun rights groups have noted it's legal to carry firearms during protests.
“Every peaceable Minnesotan has the right to keep and bear arms — including while attending protests, acting as observers, or exercising their First Amendment rights,” the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus said in a statement. “These rights do not disappear when someone is lawfully armed.”
The president weighed in on social media by lashing out at Walz and the Minneapolis mayor.
He 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 said the Democratic governor and mayor “are inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric.”
In a statement, former President Barack Obama called Pretti’s death a “heartbreaking tragedy” and warned that “many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.”
He urged the administration to work with city and state officials to “to avert more chaos and achieve legitimate law enforcement goals.”
“This has to stop,” Obama said.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York was among several Democratic lawmakers demanding that federal immigration authorities leave Minnesota. She also urged Democrats to refuse to vote to fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying via social media: “We have a responsibility to protect Americans from tyranny.”
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer later said that Democrats will not vote for a spending package that includes money for DHS, which oversees ICE. Schumer’s statement increases the possibility that the government could partially shut down Jan. 30 when funding runs out.
Pretti was shot just over a mile from where an ICE officer killed on Jan. 7, sparking widespread protests.
Video footage shows shooting
When the Saturday confrontation began, bystander video shows protesters blowing whistles and shouting profanities at federal officers on a commercial street in south Minneapolis.
The videos show Pretti stepping in after an immigration officer shoves a woman. Pretti appears to be holding his phone toward the officer, but there's no sign he's holding a weapon.
The officer shoves Pretti in his chest, and pepper sprays him and the woman.
Soon, at least seven officers are forcing Pretti to the ground. Several officers try to bring the man’s arms behind his back as he appears to resist. An officer holding a canister strikes him near his head several times.
A shot rings out, but with officers surrounding the man, it’s not clear where it came from. Multiple officers back off. More shots are heard. Officers back away, and the man lies motionless on the street.
Bovino, the public face of Trump’s crackdown, was repeatedly pressed on CNN’s Sunday “State of the Union” for evidence that Pretti assaulted law enforcement.
It was “very evident” that Pretti was not following the officers' orders, he said.
“It’s too bad the consequences had to be paid because he injected himself into that crime scene," he said. "He made the decision.”
Protests continue
Demonstrations broke out in several cities across the country after the shooting, including New York, Washington and Los Angeles.
In Minneapolis, protesters converged in the neighborhood where Pretti had been shot despite dangerously cold weather with temperatures around minus 6 degrees (minus 21 Celsius).
An angry crowd screamed profanities at federal officers after the shooting, calling them “cowards” and telling them to go home. Protesters dragged large garbage bins from alleyways to block streets, lighting garbage in at least one on fire.
As darkness fell, hundreds of people mourned quietly by a growing memorial at the site of the shooting. A doughnut shop and a clothing store nearby stayed open, offering protesters a warm place.
By morning, the scene was calm.
Brett Williams, 37, came from the city's suburbs to a morning vigil at the scene.
“I stand in solidarity with a brother whose life was taken too soon,” he said. “He’s standing up for immigrants. We’re all immigrants.”
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Associated Press writers Giovanna Dell'Orto and Tim Sullivan in Minnesota, Rebecca Santana in Washington and Jim Mustian in New York contributed this story.
