Federal agents kill another person in Minneapolis

Federal agents have killed another person in Minneapolis. The 37-year-old white man, who has now been identified as Alex Jeffrey Pretti, was shot to death Saturday morning.

“An individual approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun," said a statement from the Department of Homeland Security, quoted by The Minnesota Star Tribune. "The officers attempted to disarm the suspect but the armed suspect violently resisted.”

“Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, an agent fired defensive shots,” the statement continued. “Medics on scene immediately delivered medical aid to the subject but was pronounced dead at the scene.”

DHS, the parent agency of Border Patrol, said the shooting took place while agents were conducting a “targeted operation” seeking “an illegal alien wanted for violent assault.”

Some commenters online are posting video and questioning DHS’s version of events. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said at a press conference that his department isn’t sure yet what happened before the shooting. The man was a U.S. citizen, he said.

But "video shows several agents wrestling the man to the ground and shooting him multiple times," the Star Tribune reports.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he saw video of six masked men "pummeling one of our citizens" and shooting him, according to the Star Tribune.

“How many more residents, how many more Americans need to die or get badly hurt for this operation to end?" Frey said at a news conference. "How many more lives need to be lost before this administration realizes that a political and partisan narrative is not as important as American values?"

Officials with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said the agency was not allowed access to the scene, the Star Tribune reports. They obtained a search warrant but still were kept out. "When our team arrived, they were blocked by federal agents," BCA Superintendent Drew Evans said at a news conference. He said only an independent investigation will show what happened at the scene.

The man’s death comes less than a month after the killing of Renee Nicole Good by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis. Good was fatally shot January 7 while driving through an area where ICE agents were seeking out immigrants. DHS, also the parent of ICE, has tried to frame Good’s death as a case of self-defense, claiming she was ramming the agent with her SUV, but video shows her trying to drive away.

Related: We've all seen the video. Do Kristi Noem and mainstream media think we're stupid?

MS NOW reported Friday that the Department of Justice wanted to investigate Good for “suspected assault on an officer” after her death. FBI agents drafted a search warrant to obtain her vehicle, but a federal magistrate judge rejected it, “noting that Good was already dead and could not be considered a suspect for a warrant,” according to MS NOW. The DOJ is already investigating her widow, Becca Good.

There have been massive protests in response to Good’s death and the huge presence of federal agents in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and elsewhere in Minnesota. Democratic officials in the state, including Gov. Tim Walz and U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, have called for the agents to be pulled out. So have many others, including LGBTQ+ politicians.

Related: LGBTQ+ officials denounce ICE killing of Minneapolis woman, demand investigation

“Demonstrations have been fierce but very much in control,” The Guardian reports. Walz commented, “Minnesota is meeting fear and division with decency and generosity.”

Protests are continuing.

The American Civil Liberties Union and its Minnesota affiliate have issued statements condemning the killing. “Yesterday tens of thousands of Minnesotans from all walks of life marched through the streets in subzero temperatures to demand ICE stop terrorizing our communities, and today we wake up to the heartbreaking news that federal officials killed another person,” said Deepinder Mayell, executive director of the ACLU of Minnesota. “This tragedy is further proof that these federal agents are out of control and critically endangering our communities. ICE and CBP must end their operations in our city before anyone else is harmed, and an independent investigation must be conducted.”

“After the horrific shooting of Renee Good, the Trump administration recklessly escalated and deployed even more heavily armed agents into Minneapolis, and, today, we are again seeing the devastating and predictable consequences,” said Naureen Shah, director of immigration policy and government affairs at the ACLU. “Congress must rein ICE in before what happened in Minneapolis happens yet again. Senators must reject a DHS budget that allows these lawless agencies to continue putting our communities in danger.”

In recent weeks, the ACLU of Minnesota and its partners filed two lawsuits arising from ICE’s actions in the state: Hussen v. Noem, challenging the agency’s warrantless arrests and racial profiling, and Tincher v. Noem, a lawsuit challenging ICE violence and misconduct towards Minnesotans exercising their First Amendment rights to assemble, observe, and protest federal agents’ immigration enforcement activities in our streets. Noem is Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

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