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Opening summary: Alex Pretti's parents condemn 'sickening lies' of Trump administration
Welcome to our live coverage of the outcry across the US following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old American citizen Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday, the second such killing there in less than three weeks.
Pretti’s family released a statement on Saturday evening in which they said they were “heartbroken but also very angry” after Donald Trump and his officials referred to Pretti as a “gunman” who had approached US border patrol officers.
“The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed,” the family statement said. “Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man.”
Two witnesses to the killing have said in sworn testimony that the intensive care nurse was not brandishing a weapon when he approached federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday.
One witness, who filmed the shooting from right behind Pretti, said federal agents tackled him after he came to help someone whom they had pushed to the ground.
Minneapolis map.Footage from the scene supports the assertion that Pretti is holding a phone, not a gun, when he was tackled and shot.
In the aftermath of the killing, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released an image of a handgun, which Donald Trump referred to as “the gunman’s gun” in a social media post. Kristi Noem, the DHS secretary, said at a briefing that Pretti had “approached US border patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun”. Greg Bovino, a senior border patrol commander, said: “This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”
Here are some of the latest developments:
Minnesota federal judge Eric Tostrud ordered federal agencies to preserve evidence related to Pretti’s death. Tostrud’s ruling marked a response to Minnesota officials’ lawsuit on Saturday alleging that federal officials were stymying investigative efforts.
Thousands of protesters gathered in cities including Minneapolis, New York City, San Francisco, Boston and Providence, Rhode Island. They braved extreme cold to shout slogans including: “Say it once, say it twice, we will not put up with ICE!”
The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, said his party would block a funding package next week if it included money for the DHS, the department responsible for ICE. “What’s happening in Minnesota is appalling – and unacceptable in any American city,” the New York senator said. “Democrats sought common sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, but because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE. I will vote no.”
US vice-president JD Vance said on X, without providing evidence for his claims, that “this level of engineered chaos is unique to Minneapolis. It is the direct consequence of far left agitators, working with local authorities.”
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Organizers in Minnesota have encouraged “hyper local gatherings” with the people they see regularly to gather in dispersed places, as opposed to thousands gathering and making for an easier and bigger “target for ICE”.
One local man has shared with my colleague Jana that he and his neighbors have been fathering in front of their house where there is a park with public art, as they do during summer block gatherings, bringing candles and flashlights with them as they sing together for peace.
A handful of Republicans have expressed growing concern this morning about the tactics that federal immigration officials are using in Minnesota after a US border patrol agent fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis yesterday.
Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt said the killing of the 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse was a “real tragedy”. He told CNN earlier:
I think the death of Americans, what we’re seeing on TV, it’s causing deep concerns over federal tactics and accountability. Americans don’t like what they’re seeing right now.
Asked if he thought the president should pull immigration agents from Minnesota, Stitt said Trump has to answer that question, adding:
He’s getting bad advice right now.
The governor said the Republican president needed to tell the American people what the solution and “endgame” are, and that there needed to be solutions instead of politicizing the situation.
Right now, tempers are just going crazy and we need to calm this down.
North Carolina senator Thom Tillis and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, also conveyed unease.
In a social media post, Cassidy called the shooting “incredibly disturbing” and that the “credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake”. He called for a “full joint federal and state investigation”.
Tillis urged a “thorough and impartial investigation”, posting:
Any administration official who rushes to judgment and tries to shut down an investigation before it begins are doing an incredible disservice to the nation and to President Trump’s legacy.
Representative Thomas Massie, of Kentucky, also defended the carrying of a gun as a “constitutional right”, following the administration’s claim that Pretti was armed when he was shot dead by federal agents yesterday.
“Carrying a firearm is not a death sentence, it’s a Constitutionally protected God-given right,” Massie said in a post on X.
Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara has been speaking to CBS News this morning, saying that he has received no cooperation or official information from the federal government related to yesterday’s fatal shooting of Alex Pretti.
Even when our officers initially responded to the scene, our watch commander was not given even the most basic information that is typical in a law enforcement-involved shooting.
He also said that video footage of the incident raised “serious questions” about the account provided by Greg Bovino.
O’Hara said Pretti appeared to be “exercising his first amendment rights to record law enforcement activity, and also exercising his second amendment rights to lawfully be armed in a public space in the city”.
FBI analyzing gun Alex Pretti was allegedly carrying, says Patel
FBI director Kash Patel has given an interview to Fox News in which he suggested that Alex Pretti had broken the law by carrying the gun that he had a legal permit to carry, and provided no evidence to support the Trump administration’s claims that Pretti posed a threat to federal officers.
“You cannot bring a firearm loaded with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It’s that simple,” Patel said. “You don’t have that right to break the law and incite violence.”
Readers will not need reminding that Republicans generally celebrate the right to possess firearms as enshrined in the constitution.
Indeed, assertions like that from the administration has received fierce pushback from gun rights groups such as Gun Owners of America, which said in a statement after the shooting saying that “the second amendment protects Americans’ right to bear arms while protesting — a right the federal government must not infringe upon.”
And, again, video footage of the incident directly contradicts the Trump administration’s suggestions that Pretti was inciting violence, and show that he was holding a phone, not a gun, when he was killed.
Asked several times about what evidence there is to demonstrate that Pretti was allegedly using the gun or threatening the agents, or whether the border patrol agents saw the gun before Pretti was killed, Patel said:
That’s something I’ll leave to the DHS and prosecutors ... I don’t want to stylise that evidence.
He said the FBI was looking at the “physical evidence” from the scene, mainly the gun that Pretti was allegedly carrying, which is being analyzed for fingerprints and DNA, how many times it may have been fired, and looking at shell casings from the scene, Patel said.
Bondi demands access to Minnesota voter rolls in return for pulling ICE out of the state
Further to that, in a letter sent to Tim Walz hours after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, which was obtained by multiple outlets, attorney general Pam Bondi outlined terms to “restore the rule of law” in Minnesota – telling the governor that she would pull ICE out of the state if he turns over of its voter database.
“You and your office must restore the rule of law, support ICE officers, and bring an end to the chaos in Minnesota,” Bondi wrote in the letter, putting the onus on Walz rather than the federal agents she oversees. “Fortunately, there are common sense solutions to these problems that I hope we can accomplish together.”
Bondi goes on to press the Democratic governor to hand over information about the state’s welfare programs (including Medicaid and SNAP) to the federal government, repeal immigration sanctuary policies and give the Department of Justice access to the state’s voter rolls “to confirm that Minnesota’s voter registration practices comply with federal law”.
“I am confident that these simple steps will help bring back law and order to Minnesota and improve the lives of Americans,” Bondi said in the letter.
Walz urges Trump to pull agents out of Minneapolis 'before they kill another American in the street'
Minnesota governor Tim Walz has repeated his calls for immigration enforcement officers to leave the city of Minneapolis “before they kill another American in the street”.
The governor wrote on X:
Minnesota believes in law and order. We believe in peace. And we believe that Trump needs to pull his 3,000 untrained agents out of Minnesota before they kill another American in the street.
Bovino continues to defend fatal shooting of Alex Pretti without evidence
Senior US border patrol official Greg Bovino, who has spearheaded Trump’s aggressive immigration operations across the country, was asked on CNN about whether Alex Pretti was at any point “brandishing” a weapon – as the Trump administration has repeatedly claimed – or was unarmed when he was killed by federal agents yesterday.
Video footage of the incident directly contradicts the administration’s claims, and show that Pretti was holding a phone, not a weapon, when he was tackled to the ground by federal agents. Pretti was armed at the time of the incident and had a legal permit to carry. At no point is he seen wielding a weapon.
At first Bovino said only that Pretti “had brought a weapon … to a riot” and that the investigation was under way. He then proceeded to cast blame on the victim, saying, without any evidence, that what Pretti did was to “perpetrate violence, obstruct, delay or obfuscate border patrol in the performance of their duties in an active crime scene”.
He injected himself into that crime scene. I can’t say that enough, he made the decision to go there. We didn’t make the decision to talk to him.
Asked about video footage that appears to show officers disarming Pretti when he was shot, Bovino said:
We’re not going to adjudicate that here on TV in one freeze-frame there. We heard the law enforcement officer say, ‘Gun, gun, gun.’ So at some point they knew there was a gun.
He brought a semiautomatic weapon to a riot, assaulted federal officers … So I do believe the [homeland secuity] secretary [Kristi Noem] is 100% spot on in what she said.
Bovino declined to say whether the gun was fired or how many federal agents fired their weapons. He added that the second amendment right to bear arms “don’t count when you riot... and disrupt law enforcement”.
He maintained that “the victims are the border patrol agents there” and that they “are going to more than likely be on administrative duty” as investigations continue.
'Your eyes don't lie': Amy Klobuchar says she will vote against DHS funding as government heads towards a potential partial shutdown
We mentioned in an earlier post the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, said his party would block a funding package next week if it includes money for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, increasing the possibility that the government could partially shut down on 30 January when funding runs out.
The Democratic Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar, who filed paperwork last week to create a campaign committee to run for governor in the state, said she would not vote for DHS funding after Alex Pretti was killed by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday.
In an interview on NBC News’ Meet the Press programme, she said: “When they’re killing two constituents in my state, and they’re taking 2-year-olds out of the arms of their mom, and they are taking an elder Hmong man out of his house and putting him out there in his underwear, and then figuring out they have the wrong man, no, I am not voting for this funding.” In a separate part of the interview, Klobuchar said:
When you see the video … what you see is someone brandishing a cellphone who is simply there with a cellphone helping someone up, a woman up, as his parents point out, when she had slipped.
And so when I hear the officials from the Trump administration describe this video in ways that simply aren’t true I just keep thinking ‘your eyes don’t lie.’
Klobuchar urged Republicans in the Senate to join Democrats and “stand up” to vote against the DHS funding as she said ICE and Border Control agents are violating the first, second and fourth amendments.
The American Nurses Association, which represents over five million registered nurses, said in a statement that it was “deeply disturbed and saddened” by the killing of Alex Pretti, a US citizen and nurse, by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis. The statement, posted to social media, read:
The American Nurses Association (ANA) is deeply disturbed and saddened to learn of the death of Alex Pretti, a registered nurse, in Minneapolis earlier today. We extend our condolences to Alex’s loved ones, colleagues, and the community at large.
ANA condemns violence in our communities. The seriousness of this incident and others demand transparency and accountability. ANA calls for a full, unencumbered investigation, and urges that findings be shared promptly and clearly so Alex’s loved ones and the public have answers.
One in four nurses already experience workplace violence. As incidents with federal law enforcement continue to rise across the country, we are deeply concerned for the safety of nurses, both on the job and in the communities they serve.
Nurses are advocates for the safety and well-being of their communities. They enter this profession to heal, to protect human life, and to show up for people in their most vulnerable moments. ANA remains committed to preventing violence in the workplace and in our communities, and to advancing meaningful protections that safeguard healthcare workers and the public.
The Associated Press reported last week that the Pentagon had ordered about 1,500 active duty soldiers to be ready in case of a possible deployment to Minnesota.
It came after Donald Trump said in a social media post that he would invoke the Insurrection Act “if the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job.”
The president, who has repeatedly threatened to use the 1807 law, appeared to walk back the threat the following day, telling reporters there wasn’t a reason to use it “right now”. “If I needed it, I’d use it,” Trump said. “It’s very powerful.”
The Insurrection Act is a US federal law that gives the president the power to deploy the military or federalize national guard troops inside the US to quell domestic uprisings.
Generally, federal military forces are not allowed to carry out civilian law enforcement duties against US citizens except in times of emergency.
The law enables troops to take part in domestic law enforcement activities such as making arrests and performing searches, functions they are generally otherwise prohibited from engaging in.
GoFundMe page for Pretti nears $400,000
A GoFundMe page entitled Alex Pretti is an American Hero has raised almost $400,000 since it was set up just 17 hours ago.
Its organiser, Keith Edwards, said that Pretti was '“executed on the streets of Minneapolis by ICE agents”.
On the page, he says:
This fundraiser is intended to support the loved ones he leaves behind … If, for any reason, the funds cannot be transferred to Alex’s family, we will direct the total amount to the Immigrant Defense Project, a nonprofit that provides litigation, advocacy, and community-defense resources to help immigrants defend their rights and fight deportation.
A number of prominent US sports stars have condemned Alex Pretti’s killing by federal agents.
On Saturday, two-time NBA All-star Tyrese Haliburton posted: “Alex Pretti was murdered.” Another basketball star, Angel Reese, posted “Praying for our country” on X.
NFL stars also reacted to the shooting. Former Steelers player and broadcaster Ryan Clark paid tribute to Pretti on X. “Rest Easy Alex Pretti. Bro was a hero. Prayers to his family & loved ones. Senseless death… AGAIN!!” Clark wrote.
Dwight McGlothern Jr, a cornerback for Minneapolis’s NFL team, the Minnesota Vikings, has regularly posted on the recent unrest and did so again on Saturday. “It’s not right what’s happening in Minnesota,” he wrote.
Saturday’s NBA game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors was postponed after Pretti’s killing. The Timberwolves play less than two miles from the scene of the shooting and the NBA said it made the decision to “prioritize the safety and security of the Minneapolis community”.
You can read our full report here
Here is a video showing the moment ICE agents shoot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. A warning – it is quite distressing to watch:
David Smith
David Smith, a former foreign correspondent, has written about the areas targeted in the US immigration crackdown causing terror in communities across the country:
In the first year of his second presidency, Trump’s ICE deployments have been carefully aimed at cities that are Democratic-led and often Black-led, as if imposing collective punishment for their defiance. In this, he is borrowing from an authoritarian playbook reminiscent of Saddam Hussein of Iraq targeting the Kurds or Soviet leader Joseph Stalin causing the Holodomor, or “death by hunger”, in Ukraine.
It is the same vengeful petulance that in the past week alone has seen Trump lash out at Canada and other Nato allies over perceived slights in Davos during his quest to conquer Greenland.
Trump seems to reserve a special loathing for Minnesota because he lost the presidential elections there in 2016, 2020 and 2024, despite most neighbouring states voting in his favour. He recently made the false claim that he won Minnesota all three times. In reality, no Republican – not even Ronald Reagan – has prevailed there since Richard Nixon in 1972.
Minnesota is home to the biggest Somali community in the country, making it a target of Trump’s animus: this week, he described Somalis as “low-IQ people”, not even trying to conceal his racism. It is also home to Somali-born Ilhan Omar, a progressive congresswoman who gets under Trump’s skin. The state’s governor, Tim Walz, is a trenchant critic of the president who was Kamala Harris’s running mate in the 2024 election that she lost to Trump.
In addition, toward the end of his first presidency, Minneapolis was the scene of the police murder of Floyd, a Black man. Floyd’s killing sparked Black Lives Matter protests that surged all the way to the doorstep of the White House. America felt febrile and fragile in those days. This is another of those moments.
You can read the rest of David Smith’s analysis piece here:
Minnesota workers pressure employers to take action against ICE operations
Michael Sainato
Here is an extract from a story by my colleague Michael Sainato who has looked into how some of the US’s biggest companies are facing intensifying pressure to speak out about ICE’s operations in Minnesota:
On Friday, labor unions, community leaders, and faith leaders organized a Day of Truth & Freedom, calling for an economic blackout of no work, no shopping and no school.
Organizers of the Day of Truth & Freedom have been targeting large corporations in demanding they take stands against ICE, including ceasing economic activity with the agency, and banning the agency from entering work sites.
Target, Home Depot, Enterprise, Delta Airlines and Hilton were targeted with actions leading up to the 23 January economic blackout. Hundreds of Target workers signed onto a letter addressed to the company’s CEO and other leaders criticizing the company’s silence on the ICE operations in Minnesota. None of the companies responded to multiple requests for comment.
“It’s so sad to see Target so silent,” said Sheletta Brundidge, an activist and organizer in Minneapolis who started a Target boycott with activist Nekima Levy Armstrong against the company rescinding their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Levy Armstrong was recently detained by the FBI for an anti-ICE protest at a Minnesota church. Brundidge previously worked with Target.
“That Target CEO should be out at the street talking to people. He should be part of the protesting. He should make sure that the neighbors to his company’s headquarters are taken care of. Has he gone out to the site where Renee Good was killed and dropped off water or hand warmers? Have they done anything for her children? Has he stepped out of that ivory tower to look around and see what is going on?” added Brundidge.
