Correction via AP: The age of the man who was shot has been corrected to 37, per information from the police chief. The AP previously reported his age as 51 based on a hospital record.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A U.S. Border Patrol officer shot and killed a man Saturday in Minneapolis, drawing hundreds of protesters in a city already shaken by another fatal shooting weeks earlier.
Family members say Alex Jeffrey Pretti was the man killed by a federal officer in Minneapolis on Saturday was an intensive care nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital who cared deeply about people and was upset by President Donald Trump’s immigration raids in his city.
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. McLaughlin claimed officers fired “defensive shots” after a man with a handgun allegedly 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.
In a bystander video obtained by The Associated Press, protesters can be heard blowing whistles and shouting profanities at agents on Nicollet Avenue. In the video, Pretti is seen with a phone in his hand but none appears to show him with a visible weapon.
The video can be viewed below. Viewer discretion is advised.
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 cannister 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 cannister 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. We recognize that there is a lot of anger and a lot of questions around what has happened, but we need people to remain peaceful.”
The shooting happened amid widespread daily protests in the Twin Cities since the Jan. 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. 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 Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
“They’re killing my neighbors!” said Minneapolis resident Josh Koskie.
Federal officers wielded batons and deployed flash bangs on the crowd.
Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz said in a social media post 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.
“Pull the thousands of violent, untrained officers out of Minnesota. Now,” Walz said in a post on X.
The shooting happened a day after thousands of demonstrators protesting the crackdown on immigrants crowded the city’s streets in frigid weather, calling for federal law enforcement to leave.
What we know about Alex Pretti
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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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.”
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.
Walz excoriates immigration operations in Minnesota
Walz issued a statement Saturday calling immigration enforcement “organized brutality.”
“The federal occupation of Minnesota long ago stopped being a matter of immigration enforcement. It is a campaign of organized brutality against the people of our state. And today, that campaign claimed yet another life,” Walz said.
He said the state, and not the federal government, will lead the investigation into the death of 37-year-old Alex Pretti.
Pretti was shot and killed by federal officers amid an immigration operation.
“Minnesotans and our local law enforcement have done everything we can to deescalate. The federal government must deescalate. I once again call on the President to remove the 3,000 agents from Minnesota who are sowing chaos and violence.”
Congressional Democrats slam DHS chief Kristi Noem
Congressional Democrats responded with immediate outrage to the killing of another person by federal agents in Minneapolis.
Congressman Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, called for ICE to be “abolished” and for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to be impeached.
“Trump has created a militarized police force accountable only to him and ready to murder people in our streets. These agents need to leave our cities NOW,” the California Democrat wrote on social media.
Congressman Brad Schneider, chair of the moderate New Democratic Coalition in the U.S. House, called for an investigation into the shooting and for federal agents to leave Minnesota.
“Every agent involved in this shooting must be suspended pending a full and independent investigation and ultimately held to account for their actions today,” Schneider said in a statement. “And, Kristi Noem has got to go. She needs to resign or be fired. If not, Congress must act,” the Illinois Democrat continued.
Trump weighs in on the shooting in Minneapolis
Trump posted to his Truth Social account after a man was killed by federal officers during an immigration enforcement action in Minneapolis. Trump’s statement said:
“This is the gunman’s gun, loaded (with two additional full magazines!), and ready to go – What is that all about? Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers? The Mayor and the Governor called them off? It is stated that many of these Police were not allowed to do their job, that ICE had to protect themselves — Not an easy thing to do! Why does Ilhan Omar have $34 Million Dollars in her account? And where are the Tens of Billions of Dollars that have been stolen from the once Great State of Minnesota? We are there because of massive Monetary Fraud, with Billions of Dollars missing, and Illegal Criminals that were allowed to infiltrate the State through the Democrats’ Open Border Policy. We want the money back, and we want it back, NOW. Those Fraudsters who stole the money are going to jail, where they belong! This is no different than a really big Bank Robbery. Much of what you’re witnessing is a COVER UP for this Theft and Fraud.”
Minneapolis Democrats react to the shooting
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar has expressed outrage at the shooting of a man during an immigration operation.
“Donald Trump and all your lieutenants who ordered this ICE surge: watch the horrific video of the killing today. The world is watching. Thousands of citizens stopped and harassed. Local police no longer able to do their work. Kids hiding. Schools closed. Get ICE out of Minnesota,” Klobuchar said in a message posted on X.
Rep. Angie Craig said in a statement that she has seen “my own eyes the video of another horrific killing by ICE agents this morning in Minneapolis. This is sickening.
“The agency is beyond out of control. How much more evidence do my Republican colleagues in Minnesota need to speak out?”
Rep. Ilhan Omar issued a statement after the shooting of a man by federal officers in Minnesota.
“This isn’t isolated or accidental. The Trump administration is trying to beat us into submission rather than protect us. …This administration cannot continue violating constitutional rights under the guise of immigration enforcement,” Omar said, in part.
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This article contains reporting from Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker, Tim Sullivan and Jim Mustian. AP’s Giovanna Dell’Orto and Sarah Raza in Minnesota, Jim Mustian in New York and Michael Catalini in New Jersey also contributed.
