US nurse shot dead by ICE officer in Minneapolis amid Trump crackdown
‘The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting,’ the family of US citizen Alex Pretti said
A US immigration officer shot and killed a man on Saturday in Minneapolis, drawing hundreds of protesters onto the frigid streets and ratcheting up tensions in a city already shaken by another fatal shooting weeks earlier.
Family members identified the man who was killed as Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse who had protested against US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in his city. After the shooting, an angry crowd gathered and protesters clashed with federal immigration officers, who wielded batons and deployed flash bangs.
The Minnesota National Guard was helping local police at the direction of Governor Tim Walz, officials said. Guard troops were sent to both the shooting site and to a federal building where officials have squared off with protesters daily.
Information about what led up to the shooting was limited, Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara said.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that federal officers were conducting an operation and fired “defensive shots” after a man with a handgun approached them and “violently resisted” when officers tried to disarm him.
In bystander videos of the shooting that emerged soon after, Pretti is seen with a phone in his hand but none appears to show him with a visible weapon.
