US reels after second citizen fatally shot by federal agents in three weeks

Minneapolis: The US is reeling and a political reckoning is looming after an American citizen was shot dead by federal agents in Minneapolis, less than three weeks after Renee Good was killed in the same city by another immigration enforcement officer.

Shocking video captured the moment the man, later identified by his family as Alex Pretti, was wrestled to the footpath by federal agents before an officer fired several gunshots and Pretti stopped moving.

Pretti was an intensive care nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Minneapolis. He was born in Illinois. In a statement, his parents Michael and Susan Pretti said their son was a kindhearted soul whose last act was to protect a woman at the incident scene.

“Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact,” they said. “Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man.”

As with Good on January 7, the circumstances of Pretti’s death were immediately and hotly contested by the warring sides of American politics, despite footage that showed an outnumbered Pretti on the ground and seemingly without a weapon in hand.

WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS GRAPHIC CONTENT

The Department of Homeland Security said Pretti was carrying a 9mm semi-automatic handgun when he approached the officers as they were conducting a targeted operation against an illegal immigrant with a criminal record on Saturday morning, local time, in a suburb of Minneapolis.

“The officers attempted to disarm the suspect, but the armed suspect violently resisted. More details on the armed struggle are forthcoming,” DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.

“Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, an agent fired defensive shots. Medics on scene immediately delivered medical aid to the subject, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.”

But footage of the incident appears to show Pretti holding a phone, not a gun. While DHS said he approached officers “with” a weapon, they did not say whether he was brandishing it when he was killed.

Both Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino avoided answering that question directly when asked at separate news conferences following the shooting. An investigation was under way into the details of the incident, they said.

Bovino said it “looked like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement”.

Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara said Pretti was licensed to hold the firearm, and it is legal to carry such a weapon in the state of Minnesota. Pretti had no criminal record other than minor traffic infringements, he said.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the footage of the incident clearly showed more than six masked agents “pummelling one of our constituents, shooting him to death”.

He pleaded with US President Donald Trump to end ICE’s special enforcement operation in Minneapolis, saying a great American city was being “invaded by its own federal government”.

“How many more residents, how many more Americans need to die or get badly hurt for this operation to end?” Frey said.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said he had spoken with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles following the shooting and demanded she withdraw ICE from the state. The state must conduct the investigation, he told her.

“Minnesota’s justice system will have the last word on this. It must have the last word on this,” Walz said. “The federal government cannot be trusted to lead this investigation. The state will handle it, period.”

Walz said he had seen the “sickening” video from several angles. “It’s a campaign of organised brutality against our state,” he said. “This needs to be the event that says: enough.”

Hundreds of protesters who swarmed to the location where Pretti was killed clashed with federal agents on Minneapolis’ frosty streets throughout the afternoon. Officers repeatedly fired tear gas and pepper balls at demonstrators, who yelled “shame” and “f--- ICE”.

Local police deemed it an unauthorised gathering and dispatched officers to the scene. The city also requested assistance from the Minnesota National Guard, and Walz said it had been activated.

Tensions between ICE and anti-ICE activists in Minneapolis have been extraordinarily high since Good was fatally shot on January 7. Confrontations have been occurring daily amid ICE’s ongoing special enforcement operation, which the Trump administration has vowed to intensify.

In the Good case, Noem said within hours of the incident that the 37-year-old mother was participating in “domestic terrorism” and that the ICE agent shot her in self-defence, despite footage casting doubt on that narrative.

A similar narrative played out on Saturday. Homeland Security adviser Stephen Miller called Pretti a “domestic terrorist” and a “would-be assassin”. He said Democrats had been fuelling anti-ICE activity for months.

Vice President JD Vance said ICE wanted to work with local police to defuse tensions, but it was barred by the state’s Democratic leaders. “This level of engineered chaos is unique to Minneapolis,” he said. “It is the direct consequence of far-left agitators, working with local authorities.”

In a lengthy social media post, Trump posted a photo of the gun that allegedly belonged to the deceased man, blaming Walz and Frey for inciting insurrection with “pompous, dangerous and arrogant rhetoric”.

“These sanctimonious political fools should be looking for the Billions of Dollars that has been stolen from the people of Minnesota, and the United States of America,” Trump said, referring to alleged welfare fraud by migrants in the state. “LET OUR ICE PATRIOTS DO THEIR JOB!”

Democrats, including centrists who have opposed moves to abolish ICE, said they would try to block a funding bill for the DHS that recently passed the House of Representatives but is yet to pass the Senate.

Hakeem Jeffries, leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, said Trump and the Republican Party were trying to gaslight the nation.

“Trust your eyes. Not extremist lies. The video exposing the brutal slaying of VA nurse Alex Pretti speaks for itself,” he said.

“Masked and lawless DHS agents have brutally killed another American citizen in Minneapolis. Donald Trump’s extremists have unleashed this carnage on the streets of America. They must all be held criminally accountable to the full extent of the law.”

Some Republicans also expressed unease about what unfolded. Republicans on the House committee on homeland security reiterated their request for ICE and Border Patrol leadership to testify before Congress.

Republican senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said the events in Minneapolis were “incredibly disturbing” and called for a joint federal and state investigation.

“The credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake,” he said. “We can trust the American people with the truth.”

With AP

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.