The death of Alex Pretti in the latest raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis on Saturday was widely condemned, although the Trump administration was quick to claim that Pretti intended to harm federal agents.
Pretti’s death is the second in Minneapolis this month — following the killing of Renee Good — by federal agents. The recent incident has sparked new protests and impassioned demands from local leaders for the Trump administration to end its presence in the city.
Video of the incident showed federal officials pinning Pretti to the ground and shooting him multiple times.
Here’s what we know so far:
1. Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, who worked for the US Department of Veterans Affairs, took part in the protests after Renee Good was killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on January 7.
2. Pretti was an American citizen and was born in Illinois. According to the Associated Press, court documents showed he had no criminal record, and his family said his only contact with police was a few tickets.
3. A video of federal agents taking down Pretti was widely circulated on social media. Several US media reports claimed that the video contradicted the US government’s claim that Pretti was holding a gun.
In bystander videos of the shooting that surfaced soon after, Pretti is seen with a phone in his hand, but none show him with a visible weapon. Police Chief Brian O’Hara said police believe he was a “lawful gun holder with a permit to carry.”
Many also claimed that Alex Pretti was “going for it help the woman from the earth.”
At the start of the videos, Pretti can be seen filming a federal agent pushing one woman away and pushing another to the ground, according to Reuters.
Pretti moves between the agent and the women, then raises his left arm to protect himself as the agent pepper sprays him.
Several agents then grab Pretti – who fights them – and force him to his hands and knees. When the agents encounter Pretti, someone shouts what sounds like a warning of the presence of a weapon.
The video then shows one of the agents removing Pretti’s gun and walking away from the group with it.
Moments later, an officer with a gun pointed at Pretti’s back fires four shots at him in rapid succession, the footage shows. Several more gunshots are then heard as another agent appears to be shooting at Pretti.
4. The shooting of Pretti drew hundreds of protesters to the neighborhood to confront armed and masked agents, who fired tear gas and stun grenades.
Demonstrations broke out in New York, Washington DC and San Francisco, among others, Reuters reported.
An angry mob gathered and the protesters clashed with federal officers who wielded batons and deployed flashbangs. “The Minnesota National Guard was assisting local police at the direction of Governor Tim Walz,” officials told Reuters.
Guard soldiers were dispatched both to the scene of the shooting and to the federal building, where officers meet with protesters daily.
5. US Homeland Security said law enforcement officers were conducting a targeted operation in Minneapolis against an “illegal alien wanted for aggravated assault” when “the individual approached US Border Patrol agents with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun.”
The department claimed that federal agents “fearing for their lives and the lives and safety of fellow officers” fired the defensive shots. “
Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told a briefing: “He was there to perpetuate the violence,” while White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called Pretti “…wannabe killer.”
6. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz called the shooting “horrific” and demanded that state authorities lead an investigation. “The federal government cannot be trusted to lead this investigation. The state will handle it, period,” Walz said at a news conference.
7. US President Donald Trump took to social media to oppose Walz and the Minneapolis mayor.
He shared pictures of a gun that immigration officials said was found and said, “What’s the deal? Where are the local police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect the ICE officers?”
Trump, a Republican, said the Democratic governor and mayor were “fomenting an uprising with their pompous, dangerous and arrogant rhetoric.”
8. Alex Pretti’s family provided a statement to CNN: “We are heartbroken, but also very angry. Alex was a kind-hearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends, as well as the American veterans he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA Hospital.”
“Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not take the term hero lightly. However, his last thought and action was to protect a woman,” the statement read.
He also highlighted the “disgusting lies told about our son by the administration,” calling them “reprehensible and disgusting.”
“Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murderous and cowardly ICE thugs. He has a phone in his right hand and an empty left hand raised above his head as he tries to protect a woman who was just held down by ICE while being pepper sprayed,” the statement read, according to CNN.
9. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has vowed to block a massive spending package next week unless Republicans cut funding for the Department of Homeland Security, dramatically increasing the risk of a partial shutdown of the US government.
Democratic opposition to the funding package potentially affects not only Homeland Security, but also the Departments of Defense, Labor, Education, State, Treasury and Health and Human Services, Bloomberg reported.
10. Hollywood stars used a red carpet appearance at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday to condemn the killing of an American protester who was shot on the streets of Minneapolis by federal immigration agents.
Actress Olivia Wilde, who was in Park City, Utah for the premiere of “The Invite,” said the death of a second protester in just three weeks at the hands of federal agents was “incomprehensible.”
“I can’t believe we’re watching people being murdered in the street,” she told AFP.
“These brave Americans who came forward to protest the injustice of these quote/unquote ICE ‘officers’ and watch them get murdered – it’s incomprehensible. We can’t normalize it.”
(With inputs from Reuters, Associated Press, AFP)
