Trump administration defends killing US citizen in Minneapolis and contradicts videos

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota – Senior Trump administration officials on Jan 25 defended the

fatal shooting of a US citizen by immigration agents

in Minneapolis, even as video evidence appeared to contradict their version of events and tensions grew between local law enforcement and federal officers.

As residents visited a makeshift shrine of flowers and candles in frigid temperatures and snow to mark the Jan 24 fatal shooting of Mr Alex Pretti, Trump administration officials stated that the 37-year-old had assaulted officers, compelling them to fire in self-defence.

That account was at odds with videos recorded by bystanders.

Mr Pretti is the second American to be fatally shot by federal immigration officers in January in Minneapolis, where US President Donald Trump, a Republican, has deployed thousands of armed, masked agents in a deportation effort with little precedent.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, again called on Mr Trump to pull federal agents out of the state, which has asked a federal judge to restrain what it says are unconstitutional excesses in the US leader’s surge.

“The victims are Border Patrol agents,” Mr Gregory Bovino, a senior Border Patrol official, told CNN’s State Of The Union programme. 

That official line, echoed by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other members of the administration, drew outrage from local Democratic leaders and law enforcement officials and Democrats in the US Congress, who pointed to bystander videos showing that all Mr Pretti had in his hands was a cellphone before agents grappled him to the ground and ultimately shot him at close range.

Federal agents over the past few weeks have been met by countless angry residents protesting in the city’s icy streets, some of them blowing whistles.

Thousands of people again filled the streets of Minneapolis on Jan 25 to protest against the surge in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, chanting and waving signs saying: “Ice out!”

Holding a phone, not a gun

Videos from the scene verified and reviewed by Reuters show Mr Pretti holding a phone in his hand, not a gun, as he tries to help other protesters who have been pushed to the ground by agents.

Mr Pretti is seen filming as a federal agent pushes away one woman and shoves another woman to the ground.

Mr 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 Mr Pretti, who struggles with them, and force him onto his hands and knees.

As the agents pin down Mr Pretti, 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 handgun from Mr Pretti’s waistband area and stepping away from the group with it.

Moments later, an officer points his gun at Mr Pretti’s back and fires four shots in quick succession. More shots are heard as another agent appears to fire at Mr Pretti.

Mr Darius Reeves, the former head of ICE’s field office in Baltimore, told Reuters that federal agents’ apparent lack of communication was troubling.

“It’s clear no one is communicating, to me, based on my observation of how that team responded,” he said. 

Minnesota officials say Mr Pretti had a valid state permit to carry a concealed gun in public, which the US Supreme Court ruled in 2022 was a constitutional right.

‘Videos speak for themselves’ 

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told CBS’ Face The Nation that “the videos speak for themselves”, adding that the Trump administration’s version of events was “deeply disturbing”.

He said he had seen no evidence that Mr Pretti brandished a gun.

Tensions in the city were already running high after a federal agent

fatally shot US citizen Renee Good

on Jan 7 after approaching her in her parked vehicle. 

Trump officials said she was trying to ram the agent with her car, but other observers have argued that bystander video suggests she was trying to steer away from the officer who shot her.

State and local law enforcement are investigating whether the agent who killed Ms Good broke any Minnesota laws.

The US Justice Department has withdrawn its cooperation from that probe, and at least a dozen federal prosecutors said they were resigning over the Justice Department’s handling of Ms Good’s killing.

At Minnesota’s request, a federal judge issued a temporary order on the night of Jan 24 forbidding the Trump administration from destroying or altering evidence related to Mr Pretti’s killing.

Chief executives of some of Minnesota’s largest companies, including Target, Cargill and Best Buy, published a letter

calling for the “immediate de-escalation of tensions

and for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions”.

In separate statements, former US presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton decried the killings of Ms Good and Mr Pretti, with Mr Clinton accusing the Trump administration of lying and Mr Obama saying American values are under assault.

“This has to stop,” Mr Obama and Mrs Michelle Obama said.

The deaths of Ms Good and Mr Pretti have sparked large protests in the Democrat-run city, although on the morning of Jan 25, the area where Mr Pretti had been shot was calm.

Mr Pretti worked as an intensive care nurse at a veterans affairs hospital.

On Jan 25, more than 200 healthcare workers gathered at the site of his killing, leaving flowers and other tributes.

One woman in medical scrubs, when asked what brought her out, said as she began to sob that she had worked with Mr Pretti.

“He was caring and he was kind,” she said, asking not to be named for fear of retribution from the federal government. “None of this makes any sense.”

At a Jan 25 press conference, Minnesota Attorney-General Keith Ellison recounted a story that he said was from his 31-year-old son, a nurse in Minnesota’s healthcare system.

“When he was at work today and last night, he said, ‘Look, our colleagues were crying and in tears, and they took this hit to one of their own very personally,’” Mr Ellison told reporters.

Mr Trump has defended the operations as necessary to reduce crime and enforce immigration laws. REUTERS