dpa afp | After the fatal police shooting of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti There were new protests in Minneapolis. On Saturday evening, despite the bitter cold, hundreds of people gathered in a park in the city in the northern United States. At the spot where the shots were fired, mourners laid flowers and placed candles and photos. The police again used tear gas against demonstrators. Mourning rallies for Pretti and protests against the ICE actions also took place in several other cities, from New York to Los Angeles.
Just on Friday there were more than 10,000 people on the icy streets in Minneapolis protested against the presence of around 3,000 federal agents from the US immigration authoritiesrestaurants and shops remained closed. The shooting at Pretti was the second fatal operation there in less than three weeks. On January 7, a U.S. Immigration Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and killed unarmed driver Renee Good. Most recently, the arrest of a five-year-old boy by ICE officers caused outrage. The Trump administration has sent thousands of federal agents to Minneapolis to arrest and deport undocumented aliens. Minneapolis is one of the so-called “sanctuary cities” that offer protection to undocumented immigrants and only cooperate to a limited extent with federal immigration authorities.
The parents of the 37-year-old who was shot dead on the street accused the emergency services of killing their son without a legitimate reason. “The vile lies that the government is spreading about our son are reprehensible and disgusting,” said the family in a statement carried by several US media outlets. “Alex is clearly not holding a gun as he is attacked by Trump’s murderous and cowardly ICE thugs.” He was simply trying to protect a woman who had been brought to the ground by an officer, holding a cell phone in his hand and being sprayed with pepper spray before the shots were fired. The truth must be brought to light.
Miller calls the victim an “assassin”
The Department of Homeland Security portrays the case as the officer’s “self-defense”: He opened fire because he feared “for his life and the lives and safety of other police officers.” The ministry also published a photo that appears to show the man’s 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol. “He was there to spread violence,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters, referring to the man who was killed. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called Pretti an “assassin” on the online service X. Vice President JD Vance shared the post.
An unverified video, however, appears to show Pretti trying to protect a woman from a police tear gas attack – and then being dragged away by a police officer. The officer pulls Pretti to the ground and several police officers hold him there. According to the research collective Bellingcat, shortly before the first shot, one of the officers can be seen running away with a pistol that is similar to the weapon released by the Department of Homeland Security. Two officers then apparently fired their weapons, with a total of “at least ten shots fired,” Bellingcat explained. Most of the shots were fired “when the man was already lying motionless on the ground.”
A judge in Minnesota has now issued a temporary injunction to protect the evidence. Federal authorities are prohibited from “destroying or altering” evidence related to the shooting involving federal officers, according to the court document. It is also expressly about evidence that had already been removed from the crime scene. The authorities in Minnesota had sued the government of US President Donald Trump and its subordinate authorities such as the Department of Homeland Security. State authorities accuse federal authorities of withholding evidence. A hearing is scheduled for this Monday at 2 p.m. local time.
Trump attacks Democrats online
When 37-year-old US citizen Renee Good was shot in her car during an ICE operation in Minneapolis at the beginning of January, the government described the action as “self-defense” by an officer in acute danger to her life. But Even then, videos painted a different picture. Indignation spread across the country, demonstrators and the opposition Democrats spoke – as they are now doing – of completely excessive violence and a lack of transparency in the process of coming to terms with it.
After Pretti’s death, Governor Walz again called on Trump to end the use of federal police to deport migrants in Minneapolis. “Withdraw the thousands of violent, untrained police officers from Minnesota. Now,” Walz wrote on X. He also called for the fatal shooting to be investigated by investigators in his state. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey also called on Trump to end the deportation operation. “Peace” must be created. Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar called the fatal police shooting an “execution.” She accused Trump of turning Minneapolis into a “war zone.”
However, Trump responded with sharp attacks. Frey and Walz would “incite an insurrection with their cocky, dangerous and arrogant rhetoric,” the president wrote on his online platform Truth Social. However, there were also people from his party occasionally other tones: Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy called for a joint investigation by local and federal authorities into the “incredibly disturbing” incident. He argued that “the credibility of ICE and DHS is at stake.”