Senior Trump administration officials on Sunday defended the fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by immigration agents in Minneapolis even as video evidence contradicted their version of events and tensions grew between local law enforcement and federal officers.
U.S. immigration agents shot and killed a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis on Saturday, officials said, sparking fierce protests and condemnations from local leaders in the second such incident this month.
As residents gathered around a makeshift shrine of flowers and candles in sub-zero temperatures, administration officials continued to insist that the shooting was justified.
The Department of Homeland Security said the incident was an attack, saying a Border Patrol agent fired in self-defence after a man approached with a handgun and violently resisted attempts to disarm him.
Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino said on Sunday that “the victims are border patrol agents,” a position mirrored by other senior Trump officials throughout the day.
Local officials said the man killed in the incident was 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen from Minneapolis who worked as a nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital.
In video footage reviewed by Reuters, Pretti can be seen filming as a federal agent pushes away one woman and shoves another woman to the ground.
Pretti moves between the agent and the women, then raises his left arm to shield himself as the agent pepper-sprays him.
Several agents then take hold of Pretti, who struggles with them and force him on to his hands and knees.
As the agents pin him down, someone shouts what sounds like a warning about the presence of a gun.
Video footage then appears to show one of the agents removing a gun from Pretti and stepping away from the group with it.
A former ICE field office chief described the apparent lack of communication among agents as “troubling,” noting that officers seemed unsure who had fired when shots rang out.
The agents initially back away from Pretti’s body on the road.
Some agents then seem to offer medical assistance to Pretti as he lies on the ground, while others keep bystanders back.
The shooting of Pretti, an intensive care nurse, drew hundreds of protesters to the neighbourhood, where armed and masked agents deployed tear gas and flashbang grenades.
Demonstrations also broke out in New York, Washington D.C., and San Francisco, among other cities.
Local anger intensified after a similar fatal shooting by federal agents earlier in the month.
It also raised tensions between state and federal officials, already at odds with the Trump administration over the shooting of another U.S. citizen, Renee Good, on 7 January.
They have refused to allow local officials to participate in their investigation of the incident.
Alex Pretti’s parents, Michael and Susan, have called for the truth about their son to be told after he was shot dead in a confrontation with federal immigration officers in Minneapolis.
"We are heartbroken but also very angry," they said in a family statement, according to several U.S. outlets. "The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting."
They said video footage showed Pretti was not holding a gun when federal agents tackled him, but was instead holding his phone in one hand while using the other to shield a woman being pepper-sprayed.
Police say man was lawful gun owner
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters the man killed on Saturday had attacked agents on an immigration raid, though she did not say whether he pulled out his weapon. Federal officials posted an image of the gun they say Pretti was carrying at the time of the shooting.
"He wasn't there to peacefully protest. He was there to perpetuate violence," Noem said at a news conference.
Local leaders, including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, questioned that account.
"I've seen the video from several angles and it's sickening," Walz said. "The federal government cannot be trusted to lead this investigation - the state will handle it."
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said the man who was killed was a lawful gun owner with no criminal record other than traffic violations. He added on Sunday that “the videos speak for themselves,” saying he had seen no evidence Pretti brandished a gun.
The nearby Minneapolis Institute of Art said it had closed for the day due to safety concerns, and the National Basketball Association postponed a Minnesota Timberwolves game.
Walz and other local and state officials called for an immediate end to the Trump administration's local immigration enforcement operations.
"How many more residents, how many more Americans need to die or get badly hurt for this operation to end?" Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said at a press conference.
"The Mayor and the Governor are inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric," the president Trump wrote on social media.
Vice President JD Vance, who visited the city on Thursday, accused local leaders of refusing to provide local police support to immigration agents.
That drew a fierce response from Walz, who said the immigration crackdown has strained local police resources.
The shooting came one day after more than 10,000 people took to the frigid streets to protest the crackdown.
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