Minnesota CEOs Seek De-Escalation After Border Police Shooting
(Bloomberg) — More than 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies called for “immediate de-escalation” between state, local and federal officials as the state reels from the fatal shooting of an American by immigration agents.
Those who signed the letter shared by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce on Sunday included CEOs of companies such as Target, Best Buy, Land O’Lakes, Cargill, General Mills, UnitedHealth Group, as well as professional sports teams such as the Minnesota Vikings and Minnesota Timberwolves.
“For the past several weeks, Minnesota business representatives have been working behind the scenes every day with federal, state and local officials to develop real solutions,” the letter said. “With yesterday’s tragic news, we call for an immediate de-escalation and for state, local and federal officials to work together.”
The letter came after Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, on Saturday after she was kneeling and subdued. He had permission to carry the gun that agents found on him before the murder.
Earlier this month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot and killed Renee Good, a mother of three, as she drove away. Federal agents are in Minneapolis as part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrants.
This strengthened protests against oppression in the state of Minnesota.
Hours after the shooting, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Patrol general commander Greg Bovino claimed, without providing any evidence, that Pretti obstructed and assaulted federal officers in what they claimed was an act of domestic terrorism.
On CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, Bovino said the agents involved in Pretti’s killing were “most likely” placed on administrative leave and transferred from Minneapolis. He reiterated his defense that Border Patrol agents’ actions were justified.
State and city officials renewed calls for federal officers to leave the area and demanded that Minnesota authorities take over the investigation into Pretti’s death.
The immigrant agents were looking for when they captured Pretti was still at large, Bovino said. Walz accused the agents of engaging in “extrajudicial law enforcement” rather than focusing on immigration enforcement.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison told reporters Sunday that he was “deeply concerned” about preserving evidence in Pretti’s shooting after state investigators were denied access to the crime scene.
Ellison said state officials sought and received a restraining order requiring federal authorities to preserve the evidence.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said at the conference: “At this point in time, I would just ask that you try to put the political side of this aside for a moment and try to go back and get to the human side of this.” “This family has suffered enough, and all it takes is for the most powerful man in the world to drag their dead son away without any evidence and turn the whole country on.”
(Adds comments from Federal and state officials, beginning in the seventh paragraph.)
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