A federal immigration operation in Minneapolis has turned deadly after a Border Patrol agent shot and killed 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti during an anti-ICE protest on Saturday morning. Officials say agents were conducting a “targeted operation” when Pretti approached them, and the Department of Homeland Security claims an agent fired “defensive shots” after an armed suspect violently resisted efforts to disarm him. Pretti was pronounced dead at the scene, and authorities have identified him as a licensed gun owner with no serious criminal record.
Bystander and media-analyzed videos, however, have intensified public anger by appearing to contradict parts of the federal account. Multiple clips show Pretti filming with a phone and being pepper-sprayed and forced to the ground by a group of agents, with at least one video suggesting an officer removed a gun from his waistband before another agent fired multiple shots into his back while he was on his hands and knees. Analyses by outlets including CNN, the BBC, and The New York Times highlight conflicting timelines over when a weapon was recovered and whether Pretti still posed a threat at the moment he was shot.
The killing has triggered large protests in Minneapolis and beyond, echoing outrage over a similar fatal ICE shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minnesota earlier this month. Demonstrators have clashed with heavily armed, masked federal agents, who have used tear gas and flashbangs to clear streets, while vigils outside local hospitals and government buildings have framed Pretti as both a caregiver and a victim of excessive force under Trump’s expanded immigration crackdowns, with details updating in real time via Al Jazeera’s liveblog on the Minneapolis shooting.
