Minnesota officials are pushing to ensure they can help investigate the shocking fatal shooting of 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti. After a late night court filing a federal judge granted them a temporary restraining order, ruling that no Homeland Security officer can destroy or alter evidence related to the death Saturday morning. Federal investigators have refused to allow access to the scene, despite the state obtaining a search warrant for public areas.
It's the second fatal shooting in Minneapolis by immigration agents this month, and once again Trump administration officials immediately defended the action as self-defense while blaming the victim — in this case claiming he was a "domestic terrorist" intending to "massacre" officers.
Multiple bystander videos and witness testimony contradict that. Pretti can be seen holding only a phone in his hand before at least six officers tackle him, pinning him face down on the ground and shooting him in the back, firing what sounds like 10 shots. One eyewitness said in a court document that Pretti was not even facing agents when they grabbed him. "It didn't look like he was trying to resist, just trying to help [a] woman up," they wrote.
Pretti was a U.S. citizen with no known criminal record. DHS says he was armed, and the city's police chief confirmed he had a lawful permit to carry. There has been no evidence that NPR has verified of Pretti brandishing his handgun at any time during the encounter with federal agents. One video appears to show an officer take away his gun just before another shoots him.
Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche stood by the agents in an interview on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday. "This was an incredibly split-second decision that had to be made by ICE officers confronting a very complicated, violent situation," he said, adding that Pretti was "interrupting an ICE operation."
Gregory Bovino, the immigration official commanding the operation in Minneapolis told CNN on Sunday that "the victims are the Border Patrol agents. The suspect put himself in that situation."
"Once again DHS has come out with a predetermined narrative that contradicts everything we saw with our own eyes," said Minn. U.S. Representative Kelly Morrison, a Democrat. "Two 37-year-old Minnesotans are now dead, a poet and a nurse, for what?"
There are concerns over the integrity of the shooting investigation
Gov. Tim Walz told reporters Saturday that the federal government cannot be trusted with this investigation.
"We continue to hear, and we heard it from the vice president, that these folks can do whatever they want. They can have full immunity. And what I'm telling you is they will not. There will be justice to Minnesotans," he said.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said DHS has blocked its investigators from the scene. Earlier this month, the Trump administration also said it will not investigate the agent who shot and killed Renee Macklin Good as she was turning her car to drive away. Walz said the state is creating a log of evidence for possible future prosecution of immigration agents. In an extraordinary move the Minnesota Department of Corrections has also created a website to combat what it says are repeated false claims by DHS that it does not cooperate on federal immigration enforcement.
In a rare break with Trump by a Republican, U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana called for a joint federal and state investigation. "The events in Minneapolis are incredibly disturbing. The credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake," he wrote in a post on X."
The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, a pro-Second Amendment group, also called for a "full and transparent" investigation.
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"Your children will ask you what side you were on"
In Minneapolis on Saturday night, on street corners all over the city, neighbors came outside in the subzero temperatures to mourn and try to process this latest killing of a bystander. Small groups gathered on snowbanks, holding candles, singing, and worriedly talking with neighbors.
"It can be you! It can be anyone walking past this street right now, and that's what's so sickening and so powerful that people are out here," said Tourmu Diggs, a Minneapolis resident who attended a large vigil in Whittier Park, a few blocks from where Pretti was shot dead a few hours earlier.
Many of the vigil attendees told NPR that they want peace but fear that they may be running out of political, legal and peaceful means to remove federal immigration agents from the city.
"We just had one of the biggest protests ever yesterday, and here they are killing another person," said Minneapolis resident Nick, referring to a massive demonstration in downtown Minneapolis on Friday. Like many NPR spoke with, he declined to give his full name out of fear of doxxing and retaliation from the federal government.
Amid mounting anger and more protests expected, Minnesota activated the National Guard to help overstretched local police maintain public safety. It says members will wear neon reflective vests to distinguish them from other agencies in similar uniforms.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the weeks-long surge of federal officers amounts to an invasion of the city. "The masked militarized force and unidentified agents patrolling our streets, that is what erodes trust in both law enforcement and in democracy itself," he said.
He urged residents to stay calm but continue speaking out. "Stand up for America. Recognize that your children will ask you what side you were on. Your grandchildren will ask you what you did to act to prevent this from happening again," Frey said.
A former Trump administration DHS general counsel called for the president's impeachment. "I am enraged and embarrassed by DHS's lawlessness, fascism, and cruelty," John Mitnick wrote in a post on X.
Anger was already growing over federal agents' aggressive approach
The Trump administration has portrayed its mission in Minnesota as a crackdown on criminal, undocumented immigrants, and has sent a force of some 3,000 agents — five times larger than the Minneapolis police force. Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs for Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin has told NPR that the agency is "delivering on the American people's mandate to deport illegal aliens."
But residents say federal agents are sweeping up legal residents and even U.S. citizens in an arrest-first, ask-questions-later approach And policing and immigration experts say DHS agents are pushing the limits of their power, causing confusion for people who want to safely express their opposition.
Before the latest fatal shooting, NPR reporters on the ground in Minneapolis have witnessed federal agents pulling people off the streets and out of their cars or questioning people of color on their immigration status. Those arrested include a 5-year-old boy now in detention with his father in Texas. Agents also dragged an older Hmong man into his front yard, wearing only his underwear in subzero cold, even though he's been a U.S. citizen for decades. The family told The Associated Press that agents barged into the home and arrested the man with guns drawn despite not having a warrant.
Such actions, and now Pretti's killing, have escalated anger and frustration among residents like Linda Gotlieb. The health care worker joined the crowd of protesters at the site of the latest shooting, standing feet from a row of local police in full face masks and riot gear.
"They're trying to have the narrative be that the people are the aggressors," she told NPR. "But we have seen on video and we've heard people testify to the fact that, no, they are being illegally detained and assaulted and sustaining injuries. And this is absolutely counter to everything our country stands for."
Asked about such concerns, Deputy Attorney General Blanche Sunday told CNN it's not fair to point to a few incidents out of thousands of arrests. "Our agents are acting humanely," he said. "Their jobs are very, very difficult."
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