Federal law enforcement agents shot and killed a 37-year-old man named Alex Jeffrey Pretti on Saturday in Minneapolis, where chaos ensued between protesters and officers near the scene of the incident.
By the end of the day, Minnesota state officials had called in the National Guard in an effort to quell further unrest.
As it did with Renee Good, the Minneapolis woman who was shot and killed on Jan. 7 by a federal immigration officer, the Trump administration blamed the victim in Saturday’s fatal incident, portraying him as a domestic terrorist, while local and state officials condemned President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement tactics and called on him to end the crackdown.
“Earlier today, I watched a video — as so many of you did — showing more than six masked agents pummeling one of our Minneapolis residents before shooting him to death,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said Saturday evening. “How many more Minnesotans must die before this ends?”
Frey said the city is asking a federal judge to immediately grant a temporary restraining order to halt the federal immigration operation. “As I’ve said for weeks, this situation is unsustainable. Our community is tired. Our officers are tired. Our businesses are tired. We need support,” he said.
One of the city’s legal filings on Saturday night included videos showing different angles of the shooting of Pretti and another reflecting the moments before the shooting.
Details were unclear. But one video verified by MS NOW that shows the encounter between Pretti — whose parents said he was an intensive care unit nurse in the Minneapolis area, according to AP News — and the border patrol agents in the lead-up to the shooting appears to contradict the Trump administration’s version of events. In the video, Pretti is seen stepping in as an agent shoves another person to the ground. A tussle ensues, and an agent sprays a chemical at the man’s face before multiple agents wrestle him to the ground and gunshots ring out.
The government’s second lethal shooting of a local resident in less than three weeks in Minneapolis drew swift condemnation from Democrats — and piqued scrutiny from Republicans and some of their allies.
The chairman of the House Homeland Committee, Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., sent letters Saturday evening requesting testimony from top customs, border and immigration officials before the committee. The National Rifle Association took the Justice Department to task, calling a comment by the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California “dangerous and wrong.” (The U.S. attorney, Bill Essayli, posted on X earlier in the day: “If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you.”)
And Senate Democrats, who were poised to approve annual funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement, reversed course on Saturday, as MS NOW reported.
Federal officials portrayed Pretti as armed and threatening. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said he had a “lawful firearm, concealed permit carrier. Something that I’ve been lectured to by Republicans for decades.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said at a news conference that his department has been in touch with the Department of Homeland Security, but said “they have not been able to provide us any specific details around the incident itself.”
Greg Bovino, Trump’s Border Patrol commander, told reporters on Saturday afternoon that the agent involved in the shooting has worked at the agency for eight years. Based on video so far, it’s unclear how many officers shot at the victim.
Walz on Saturday morning called the shooting “horrific” and “sickening” and said later at a news conference in the afternoon that he had spoken to the White House twice about the incident so far. The state, he said, must investigate the shooting.
“Minnesota’s justice system will have the last word on this. It must have the last word, as I told the White House in no uncertain terms this morning,” Walz said. “The federal government cannot be trusted to lead this investigation. The state will handle it, period.”
Trump indirectly addressed the shooting several hours after the incident occurred by posting a photo of a gun and a magazine on Truth Social that DHS earlier claimed belonged to Pretti.
“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?” Trump wrote before repeating his grievances about Minnesota Democrats and the alleged widespread fraud in the state.
O’Hara said he had seen the video circulating of the shooting but that he did not know “what happened prior to the shooting.”
“The only interaction that we are aware of with law enforcement has been for traffic tickets, and we believe he is a lawful gun owner with a permit,” O’Hara added.
O’Hara confirmed that the victim had died. He said officers did not know what happened prior to the shooting.
DHS said on X that the man approached Border Patrol officers with a gun as they conducted a “targeted operation” on Saturday morning.
“The officers attempted to disarm the suspect but the armed suspect violently resisted,” DHS 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 was pronounced dead at the scene.”
DHS said Pretti had two magazines and did not carry identification, and said “this looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”
Pretti was wrestled to the ground by several agents and shot at multiple times, as first reported by The Minnesota Star Tribune, which obtained video recorded by an eyewitness. As people gathered near the scene after the shooting, uniformed officers — some wearing what appeared to be gas masks — were seen firing tear gas into the crowd.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, in a post on X, called the victim a “domestic terrorist” who he claimed “tried to assassinate federal law enforcement.”
Although details of the shooting remain unclear, the National Border Patrol Council, which represents 18,000 agents, appeared to blame the victim for the shooting in an X post. The union suggested the man brandished a loaded gun and said “there are going to [be] severe consequences and repercussions” in such encounters. Open and concealed carry are legal in Minnesota with a permit.
Walz said in a post on X that he had spoken to the White House “after another horrific shooting by federal agents this morning.”
“Minnesota has had it. This is sickening,” Walz said. “The president must end this operation. Pull the thousands of violent, untrained officers out of Minnesota. Now.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar criticized the Trump administration in a number of posts on X on Saturday and called on her Republican colleagues to speak up.
“Donald Trump and all your lieutenants who ordered this ICE surge: watch the horrific video of the killing today. The world is watching,” she said. “Thousands of citizens stopped and harassed. Local police no longer able to do their work. Kids hiding. Schools closed. Get ICE out of Minnesota NOW. And Republicans in congress: Stop your silence and stop being complicit.”
The state has been on edge, with mass protests following the killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent and federal law enforcement officers’ large and aggressive presence in the state.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.