US govt digs in on ICE shooting, despite video evidence
Senior Trump administration officials have defended the fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by immigration officials in Minneapolis, even though video evidence contradicted their version and tensions rose between local law enforcement and federal officials.
As residents visited a makeshift shrine of flowers and candles in freezing temperatures and snow on Saturday to commemorate the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti — the second fatal shooting by federal officers in Minneapolis this month — the Trump administration argued that Pretti had attacked the officers, forcing them to fire in self-defense.
Speaking on CNN’s State of the Union, Border Patrol command general Gregory Bovino did not provide evidence that Pretti tried to obstruct law enforcement’s operation, but focused on the fact that the ICU nurse was carrying a gun she was licensed to carry.
“The victims are border patrol agents,” Bovino said.
“Law enforcement does not attack anyone.”
Bovino and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused Pretti of assaulting, rioting and obstructing agents.
“We know that he arrived on that scene and disrupted a law enforcement operation that was against federal law,” Noem told Fox News’ Sunday Briefing.
“This is a crime. When he did this, when he interacted with the agents, when they tried to pull him away, he became aggressive and resisted them.”
That official statement, echoed by other Trump officials on Sunday, triggered outrage from local law enforcement, mostly in Minneapolis and from Democrats on Capitol Hill, because of bystander videos showing a different version of events.
Videos of the scene verified and reviewed by Reuters show Pretti, 37, holding a phone, not a gun, as he tried to help other protesters who were pushed to the ground by agents.
When the videos begin, Pretti is seen filming a federal agent shoving one woman and pushing the other woman to the ground. Pretti steps between the agent and the women, then raises her left arm to protect herself as the agent pepper-sprays her.
Several agents then grab Pretti, who is struggling with them, and force him to his hands and knees. As the agents corner Pretti, one yells, making a noise that sounds like a warning of the presence of a gun.
Video footage then shows one of the agents pulling a gun from Pretti and walking away from the group with it.
Moments later, a police officer with a gun pointed it at Pretti’s back and fired four shots at him in rapid succession. Several more shots can be heard as another agent appears to shoot at Pretti.
Darius Reeves, the former head of ICE’s field office in Baltimore, told Reuters that the apparent lack of communication by federal agents was troubling. “Based on my observations of how the team responded, it’s clear no one contacted me,” Reeves said.
Reeves said one of the officers seized Pretti’s gun before he was killed. “For me, the evidence of that is how everyone falls apart,” he said. “They’re looking around, trying to figure out where the gunshots are coming from.”
Federal authorities did not allow local authorities to participate in the investigation of the incident.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, told ABC News This Week that Trump’s influx of federal agents into Minneapolis was “completely out of control and unbalanced” and that they should leave Minnesota. He called Pretti’s shooting “simply horrific.”
The deaths of Good and Pretti sparked major protests in the Democratic-run city, but the area where Pretti was shot was quiet Sunday morning.
In addition to large protests in Minneapolis since Good’s death, rallies have been held in other cities led by Democratic politicians, including Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., since Trump began sending immigration agents and National Guard troops to those communities in 2025.
Trump argued the operations were necessary to reduce crime and enforce immigration laws.
