Calls mount on Trump administration to fully investigate Alex Pretti’s killing | Minneapolis
Pressure increased Sunday on Donald Trump’s administration to fully investigate the killing of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis the previous day.
Calls for an investigation came from across the political divide after video analysis showed officers removing a gun he was allowed to carry and reportedly not in his possession before fatally shooting Pretti.
Former president Barack Obama called the killing a “heartbreaking tragedy” and “a wake-up call for every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under attack.”
In a statement released Sunday, Obama said federal law enforcement and immigration agencies are not operating legally or accountable in Minnesota.
“For weeks, people across the country have been rightfully outraged by the spectacle of mask ice. [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] recruits and other federal agents are operating with impunity and employing tactics that appear designed to intimidate, harass, provoke and endanger residents of a major American city,” he said. Those tactics, he said, have now resulted in the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens (Pretti and Renee Good) in Minneapolis. But he said Trump and other administration officials appeared willing to escalate the rhetoric before an investigation was launched, “despite the fact that they appeared to be directly contradicted by the video evidence.”
Obama urged Americans to support the wave of peaceful protests in Minneapolis and other parts of the country.
“These are a timely reminder that it is ultimately up to each of us as citizens to speak out against injustice, protect our fundamental freedoms, and hold our government accountable,” he said.
Republican US senator Bill Cassidy said the “credibility” of ICE and the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was “at stake”.
“There should be a full federal and state investigation.” Cassidy wrote in a post on X:After an ICE officer shot and killed Good on Jan. 7, and border patrol officers fatally shot Pretti on Saturday. “We can trust the American people with the truth.”
Other Democratic lawmakers, including U.S. House member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, both of New York, also called for federal immigration officials to leave Minnesota. They urged Senate Democrats during budget negotiations in the coming days to vote against funding the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and border patrol.
“We have a responsibility to protect Americans from tyranny,” Ocasio-Cortez said Published on X.
On Sunday morning, U.S. senators Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Adam Schiff of California, both Democrats, said they would vote against the upcoming homeland security funding department.
“When they kill two voters in my state and take two-year-olds out of their mother’s arms and take an elderly Hmong man from his home and take him out in his underwear and then realize they got the wrong guy… no, I’m not voting for that funding,” Klobuchar said on NBC’s Meet the Press, referring to incidents involving federal immigration agents who have come under intense media scrutiny.
Schiff said that “this agency would not give another dime to ICE or border patrol, given the way these agencies operate.”
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer first announced on Saturday that he and his fellow Democrats would not provide the necessary votes if DHS funding remains adequate. A spokesman for Senate majority leader John Thune said DHS and other government funding would be voted on as a single package. Without a compromise, the government will face a partial shutdown at the end of January.
Schiff warned that if Republicans “insist” on combining immigration enforcement funding with other government appropriations, it could result in a government shutdown. “This will be the Republicans’ decision,” he said. “They understand we’re not going to settle for that.”
Connecticut U.S. senator Chris Murphy, also a Democrat, told CNN’s State of the Union that Democrats “cannot vote to fund this lawless Department of Homeland Security that is killing American citizens, traumatizing little boys and girls across the country by violating the law.”
New Jersey governor Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, told CNN that the shootings in Minneapolis were not about sanctuary cities.
“This goes way beyond that,” he said. “This is about a mask-wearing, unidentified, unaccountable Stasi-type secret police force where leaders in the Trump administration are blatantly lying about what’s going on, at a time when the American people can see the video.”
Meanwhile, Pretti’s parents, Michael and Susan, called for the “truth” to be told about their son.
“We are heartbroken but also very angry,” they said. “The sickening lies told by the administration about our son are reprehensible and disgusting.”
The family’s statement came after U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem alleged that Pretti pointed a gun at agents before opening “defensive fire” at him. None of the ubiquitous video evidence shows Pretti brandishing a gun.
Klobuchar also said the Trump administration described the attack, shown in many eyewitness videos that circulated widely on social media, “in ways that are simply inaccurate.”
“I keep thinking, your eyes don’t lie,” Klobuchar said. “Law enforcement is based on trust, and we have had a complete breakdown in trust.”
He called for a “transparent” investigation into the shooting and called for Trump administration immigration enforcement officials to leave Minnesota.
“There is clearly an ongoing investigation,” deputy attorney general Todd Blanche told Meet the Press.
“Secretary Noem talked about this yesterday, we would expect this when a tragedy like this happens,” Blanche said.
But he disputed the idea that videos of the encounter tell the whole story. Regarding Pretti’s killing by federal agents, Blanche said, “We don’t know what happened in the minutes leading up to what we just watched. We don’t know what ICE saw, we don’t know what ICE heard.” “This is part of the investigation that will take place.
“You see a violent interaction with the man who was shot. So we don’t know. No matter how hard you look, no matter how many different angles you see, there are a lot of things we don’t see.”
Blanche reiterated the government’s position that anti-immigration enforcement protesters were not peaceful. “They are trying to obstruct and obstruct ICE, and that makes the job that our men and women have to do almost impossible without those types of interactions,” he said.
But he added, referring to Minnesota governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey, a fellow Democrat: “Make no mistake about it. If we had a governor, if we had a mayor, if we had leadership in Washington and in Minnesota that really cared about their citizens, this could have been completely prevented.”
Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino was asked why federal agents shot and killed Pretti.
“You don’t know he was unarmed,” Bovino told CNN’s Dana Bash. “I don’t know that he was unarmed. This is a photo-freezing of the crime scene. That’s why we have investigators.
“The facts will be revealed exactly what happened through the investigation,” he said.
Asked if Bash blamed the victim, he said: “The victims are the borderlines. [atrol agents.”
Republican US senator Lindsey Graham took the line that “an armed man trying to impede a lawful arrest is a recipe for disaster”. The South Carolina Republican said he expects law enforcement officers to use good judgement “but not to foolishly risk their lives or the lives of others”.
“If you go to such events with a loaded gun, bad things can happen,” Graham added, though it is legal in Minnesota to possess guns in public places with a permit. Permit holders who don’t have both the document and a license on them can face a misdemeanor $25 fine.
Late Saturday, a federal judge issued an order blocking the Trump administration from “destroying or altering evidence” related to Pretti’s killing, after Minnesota officials sued DHS.
The Minnesota attorney general, Keith Ellison, said the suit demanded “a full, impartial, and transparent investigation into [Pretti’s] Fatal shooting at the hands of DHS agents [that] non-negotiable”.
Meanwhile, Minneapolis police Chief Brian O’Hara said information about what led to the shooting was limited. As protests broke out in Minneapolis on Saturday, federal officers blocked state investigators from accessing the scene where Pretti was killed.
Trump responded to Pretti’s shooting with his typical combativeness. The Republican president accused Walz and Frey of “inciting the insurrection with their ostentatious, dangerous and arrogant rhetoric.”
Vice President J.D. Vance claimed that the events in Minneapolis were “premeditated chaos” caused by “far-left agitators working with local officials.”
ICE and border patrol officials are scheduled to hold a news conference in Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon.
