- “Federal agents are being deployed without accountability” and “that the operation was ‘brutalizing U.S. citizens and law-abiding immigrants.'” – Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto
Federal immigration agents shot and killed a Minneapolis nurse Saturday morning, marking the second fatal shooting by federal officers in the city this month and triggering a rapid cascade of court action, political condemnation, and a brewing budget crisis in Congress as Senate Democrats moved to block funding for the Department of Homeland Security and ICE.
The man killed, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, was a U.S. citizen with no criminal record who worked as an intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Health Care System. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Pretti had a permit to carry a firearm, which is legal in Minnesota, but emphasized that bystander video shows Pretti holding a phone — not a weapon — at the time federal agents took him to the ground and opened fire.
Video verified by multiple news organizations shows several federal agents surrounding Pretti, forcing him to his knees, restraining him on the ground and striking him before at least two agents fired. In the footage, one agent appears to pull a gun from the scrum while another unholsters his weapon and fires into Pretti’s back at close range. At least 10 shots were fired within roughly five seconds. Pretti collapses and lies motionless as shots continue.
Federal officials say the shooting occurred during a “targeted operation” in Minneapolis connected to immigration enforcement efforts under the Trump administration.
Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol official overseeing the operation, said agents were searching for a man accused of domestic assault and other charges, but acknowledged that Pretti was not the target of the operation.
Bovino and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the shooting began after Pretti approached agents while armed and that officers perceived him as a threat. Noem said federal agents believed Pretti intended to harm law enforcement.
A senior Border Patrol official described the situation as involving a potential “massacre.”
Those accounts are sharply disputed by eyewitnesses, medical professionals, and sworn declarations filed in federal court within hours of the killing.
In a declaration submitted as part of ongoing litigation challenging federal immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota, a physician who witnessed the shooting from their apartment said they did not observe Pretti brandish a weapon or pose an immediate threat to agents.
The doctor stated that they rushed outside in freezing conditions to provide medical assistance, identified themselves as a physician, and initially found federal agents not administering medical aid.
The doctor’s declaration describes multiple gunshot wounds, including several to Pretti’s back, and states that federal agents initially blocked or delayed efforts to render emergency care. The physician said they attempted CPR after eventually being allowed access.
Another civilian witness, who was recording video from just feet away, stated in a sworn declaration that Pretti had approached agents with a phone and camera, not a gun, and that federal officers escalated the encounter. That witness said agents forced Pretti to the ground and shot him repeatedly while he was restrained.
Beyond the killing itself, the court filings describe federal agents preventing state and local authorities from securing the crime scene and interviewing witnesses.
Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said federal agents with the Department of Homeland Security blocked BCA investigators from accessing the scene even after a search warrant was obtained. Evans said that in more than 20 years with the agency, he had never encountered federal authorities barring state investigators from a scene involving concurrent jurisdiction.
Within hours, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty filed a new federal lawsuit challenging the federal government’s refusal to cooperate with the investigation.
That same evening, U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud issued a temporary restraining order barring federal agencies from destroying or altering any evidence related to Pretti’s killing and scheduled a follow-up hearing.
The shooting has also been folded into an existing federal case challenging “Operation Metro Surge,” a Trump administration immigration enforcement initiative operating in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Plaintiffs in that case argue the operation violates First and Fourth Amendment protections and sought emergency relief after the killing.
Attorneys for Minnesota, Minneapolis, and St. Paul asked the court to halt the operation entirely, warning that if left unchecked it would continue to cause irreparable harm.
Pretti’s parents, who said they learned of their son’s death when a reporter called them, issued a statement condemning what they described as “sickening lies” told by the administration about their son. They described Pretti as kindhearted and said he had been trying to help members of his community.
The killing reignited protests in Minneapolis, where tensions had already been high following the Jan. 7 fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, 37, who was shot in the head by a federal immigration officer earlier this month. That shooting also prompted demonstrations and demands by city and state officials for federal agents to leave the city.
Political fallout spread quickly beyond Minnesota. California Gov. Gavin Newsom accused President Donald Trump of escalating federal violence, writing on social media that “Trump made a shooting happen” and calling the federal presence in Minneapolis a “violent occupation.”
Newsom urged Californians to report abuses by ICE and Customs and Border Protection to the state attorney general’s office.
U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff said the killing was another “senseless loss of life” and called for ICE agents to be removed from cities immediately.
Sen. Alex Padilla said the shooting did not make communities safer and only escalated tensions.
At the same time, the shooting triggered an unusual rupture with gun rights groups after Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, posted online that approaching law enforcement with a gun carries a high likelihood officers would be legally justified in shooting.
The National Rifle Association condemned Essayli’s comment as “dangerous and wrong,” saying public officials should wait for full investigations rather than demonize law-abiding gun owners.
Gun Owners of America said federal agents are not “highly likely” to be legally justified in shooting concealed carry permit holders and warned that treating the presence of a firearm as justification for lethal force undermines constitutional rights.
Essayli later said his remarks were mischaracterized and claimed he was referring only to armed agitators refusing to disarm, but the backlash underscored fractures between the administration’s enforcement posture and traditional gun rights advocates.
In Congress, the political consequences escalated into a potential budget crisis. Senate Democrats announced they would refuse to provide the votes needed to advance legislation funding the federal government if it includes appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called what was unfolding in Minneapolis “appalling” and “unacceptable in any American city,” saying Democrats would block the measure unless DHS funding was separated. The legislation includes billions for DHS and roughly $10 billion for ICE.
Several Democratic senators said they could no longer support funding ICE amid repeated incidents of violence.
Sen. Mark Warner said he would not vote to fund DHS “while this administration continues these violent federal takeovers of our cities.”
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto said federal agents were being deployed without accountability and that the operation was “brutalizing U.S. citizens and law-abiding immigrants.”
Republicans acknowledged the funding deal was in jeopardy and began exploring whether DHS funding could be split off to avert a partial government shutdown.
Sen. Susan Collins said negotiations were ongoing but warned that rejecting the full package could jeopardize funding for multiple federal agencies.
As investigations proceed, federal officials have defended their actions as lawful and necessary, while state authorities, judges, medical witnesses, gun rights groups, and Democratic lawmakers have raised sharply different conclusions about what happened in Minneapolis and what it signals about federal power, accountability and the use of lethal force.
Hearings in multiple federal cases are scheduled in the coming days, and the killing of Alex Pretti now sits at the center of a widening legal and political confrontation that extends from a Minneapolis street corner to the halls of Congress.
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Based on what happened with Renee Good (a rush to judgement which turned out to be partially incorrect), perhaps the same caution should be exercised here.
What I don’t understand is the reason that Minneapolis is the focus of ICE operations (and protests). Is there an unusually high percentage of illegal immigrants there?
No. Seems like this is an effort to punish Waltz.
It’s not like Trump to try to punish his political enemies. :-)
Though Waltz isn’t running for re-election. Seemed like he understood that the scandal involving (primarily) Somali immigrants sealed his fate.
But why are Somali immigrants apparently concentrated in that particular area, in the first place?
Thought I’d look it up, and here’s what AI says. (I should have known that religious “do gooders” were part of the reason.)
————————
Initial Refugee Resettlement (1990s): Following the 1991 outbreak of civil war in Somalia, Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services helped settle the first wave of refugees in Minnesota.
Employment Opportunities: Many Somali immigrants found work in Minnesota’s poultry processing plants, agriculture, and manufacturing, particularly in areas outside the Twin Cities like Marshall, MN.
“Snowball Effect” & Family Ties: As a small, stable community was established, it created a welcoming environment, encouraging friends and relatives to relocate from other parts of the U.S. (secondary migration).
Supportive Infrastructure: Minnesota offered a strong network of voluntary agencies for housing, education, and community support.
As of 2026, over 75,000 to 87,000 people of Somali ancestry live in Minnesota, with a high concentration in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area.
———————-
(If our country ever starts deporting Americans, they should probably start with the do-gooders. No, I’m not serious about that.)
Glib racism doesn’t seem like an appropriate response to this shooting, but it’s certainly on brand for you.
Seems to me that most do-gooders are “white”, for what that’s worth.
And frankly, most of those who put forth claims of racism (supposedly on behalf of groups they’re not members of) are also “white”.
Most of the protesters themselves are white.
Seems rather paternalistic, at best.
Also, do all black Americans “welcome” Somali immigrants?
If anything is racist, it appears to be your underlying assumptions and paternalistic beliefs.
The truth is that immigrants (of any skin color/race) have impacts.
Ron, do you have the ability not to post something that comes to your mind? Not on topic and not helpful
Interesting how you view things, David – apparently no concern with Don’s completely unfounded, vile comment directed at me.
Should I not respond when someone (in this case, someone who is part of the Vanguard itself) calls me a racist?
That’s an actual question.
Perhaps it is displaced anger – the same type of anger that causes people to get shot in Minneapolis by agents, resulting in even more self-rightous anger and outrage.
Maybe you should have re-read your post and clarified it. Instead you posted something that not only didn’t respond to Don’s point, but didn’t make any sense.
Ron O. You don’t think you are racist and I’m not saying you are but your posts can certainly be read that way. I have no way of knowing what is in your heart. But you can’t write stuff like that and then claim defamation and victimization because if it walks like a duck and writes like a duck people are going to call it a duck. And I can point to several things you have said above that can easily be interpreted as racist.
I’m not seeing anything in what Ron wrote above as being racist.
He’s was just pointing out the facts.
“And I can point to several things you have said above that can easily be interpreted as racist.”
Please do – I already asked Don and David to do so several times (via email), and submitted similar requests to this blog (which they decline to post).
I’ll look at them later – no time to respond much today.
You asked for it.
“Seems to me that most do-gooders are “white”, for what that’s worth.”
“Also, do all black Americans “welcome” Somali immigrants?”
Ron Glick, that’s the best you’ve got?
Looks from video like an execution, but largely blocked from view, and why would two officers draw if there was no threat? Unless someone yelled ‘gun’ and they panicked and fired. Something ain’t right. I mean besides the whole thing of militarizing the situation and everyone saying stupid, inciting things and turning politics into escalating violence.
There’s now video, which may show an agent removing the gun before they shot him.
There is no video so far showing him pointing a gun at officers (and it seems unlikely, given how they were on top of him, and beating him).
The agents were way too aggressive with him (and his female companion?) in the first place – and way too quickly.
I’m getting tired of seeing the administration immediately defend this stuff, which also occurred the last time.
The again, I don’t think they should (also) be immediately killing people in boats in the Caribbean, regardless of their illicit activities (which aren’t an “immediate threat”).
So far, this (the incident) seems different than last time. Last time, video subsequently surfaced which seemed to show a legal justification, at least, for deadly force. I’m not seeing it so far this time.
We are in a reality that has produced successors to the 20th Century Black Shirts in Italy and the brown-shirted Sturmabteilung in Germany with the masked agents of ICE.
“Minnesota’s AG Previously Joined Other Blue States Arguing Against Right To Bear Arms At Political Rallies, Protests”
https://www.aol.com/articles/minnesota-ag-previously-joined-other-202845965.html
Did he argue for summary execution of said protestors?