Officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration defended on Sunday the fatal shooting of a US citizen by immigration agents in Minneapolis, even as video evidence contradicted their version of events and as tensions grew between local law enforcement and federal officers.
As residents visited a makeshift shrine of flowers and candles in frigid temperatures and snow to mark Saturday’s fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, Trump administration officials stated that Pretti assaulted officers, compelling them to fire in self-defence.
That account was at odds with videos recorded by bystanders.
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Pretti is the second American to be fatally shot by federal immigration officers this month in Minneapolis, where Trump, a Republican, has deployed thousands of armed and masked agents in a deportation effort with little precedent.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, again called on Trump to pull federal agents out of the state, which has asked a federal judge to restrain what it says are unconstitutional excesses in Trump’s surge.
“The victims are Border Patrol agents,” Gregory Bovino, a senior Border Patrol official, told CNN’s “State of the Union” programme.
That official line, echoed by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other members of the administration, drew outrage from local Democratic leaders and law enforcement and Democrats in the US Congress, who pointed to the bystander videos that show all Pretti had in his hands was a cellphone before agents grappled him to the ground and ultimately shot him at close range.
Federal agents over the past few weeks have been met by countless angry residents protesting in the city’s icy streets, some of them blowing whistles.
Thousands of people again filled the streets of Minneapolis on Sunday to protest against the surge in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, chanting and waving signs saying, “ICE OUT!”
Videos of Saturday’s killing verified by Reuters show Pretti, 37, holding a phone in his hand, not a gun, as he tries to help other protesters who had been pushed to the ground by agents.
Pretti can be seen filming while a federal agent pushes away one woman and shoves another woman to the ground. Pretti moves between the agent and the women, then raises his left arm to shield himself as the agent pepper sprays him.
Several agents then take hold of Pretti, who struggles with them, and force him onto his hands and knees.
As the agents pin Pretti down, someone shouts what sounds like a warning about a gun.
Video footage then appears to show one of the agents removing a handgun from Pretti’s waistband area and stepping away from the group with it.
Moments later, an officer points his gun at Pretti’s back and fires four shots in quick succession. More shots are heard as another agent appears to fire at Pretti.
Darius Reeves, the former head of ICE’s field office in Baltimore, told Reuters that federal agents’ apparent lack of communication was troubling. “It’s clear no one is communicating to me, based on my observation of how that team responded,” Reeves said.
Minnesota officials say Pretti had a valid state permit to carry a concealed gun in public, which the US Supreme Court ruled was a constitutional right in 2022.
Brian O’Hara, the Minneapolis police chief, told the CBS “Face the Nation” programme that “the videos speak for themselves”, calling the Trump administration’s version of events deeply disturbing.
He said he had seen no evidence that Pretti brandished a gun.
Tensions in the city were already running high after a federal immigration agent fatally shot US citizen Renee Good on January 7 after approaching her in her parked vehicle.
Trump officials said she was trying to ram the agent with the vehicle, but other observers said bystander video suggests she was attempting to steer away from the officer who shot her.
State and local law enforcement are investigating whether the agent who killed Good broke any Minnesota laws.
The US Justice Department withdrew its cooperation from that probe, and at least a dozen federal prosecutors said they were resigning over the Justice Department’s handling of Good’s killing.
At Minnesota’s request, a federal judge issued a temporary order on Saturday night forbidding the Trump administration from destroying or altering evidence related to Pretti’s killing.
Chief executives of some of Minnesota’s largest companies, including Target, Cargill and Best Buy, published a letter calling for the “immediate de-escalation of tensions and for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions.”
In separate statements, former U.S. Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton decried the killings of Good and Pretti, with Clinton accusing the Trump administration of lying and Obama saying American values are under assault.
Pretti worked as an intensive care nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital. On Sunday, more than 200 healthcare workers gathered at the site of his killing, leaving flowers and other tributes.
One woman in medical scrubs, when asked what brought her out, said she had worked with Pretti and began to sob. “He was caring, and he was kind,” she said, asking not to be named for fear of retribution from the federal government. “None of this makes any sense.”
At a Sunday press conference, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison recounted a story that he said was from his 31-year-old son, a nurse in Minnesota’s healthcare system.
“When he was at work today and last night, he said, ‘Look, our colleagues were crying and in tears, and they took this hit to one of their own very personally,'” Ellison told reporters.
Trump has defended the operations as necessary to reduce crime and enforce immigration laws.
