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Federal immigration agents shot and killed a Minneapolis nurse during a confrontation on an icy roadway Saturday, marking the second fatal shooting of a US citizen in less than three weeks and intensifying scrutiny of the Trump administration's mass immigration enforcement operation in the city.
Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, died after agents fired approximately 10 shots at him seconds after spraying him with chemical irritant and forcing him to the ground, according to cell phone video verified by US media. The footage contradicted initial claims by federal officials that Pretti had posed an imminent threat to agents.
The incident follows a similar pattern to the January shooting death of Renee Good, also 37, whose killing by an immigration officer prompted similar disputed accounts from federal authorities about the circumstances of her death.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem initially described Pretti as an "assassin" who had violently attacked agents, pointing to a pistol officials said was found on him. However, the widely shared video showed Pretti never drawing a weapon before agents opened fire.
By Sunday, Noem had adopted a more measured tone while still defending the agents' actions. "I'm grieved for them. I truly am. I can't even imagine losing a child," she said on Fox News when asked about Pretti's parents, who condemned what they called "sickening lies" about their son.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche acknowledged key questions remain unanswered. When asked whether agents had already removed the pistol from Pretti before shooting, he told NBC's "Meet the Press" that "nobody else knows, either. That's why we're doing an investigation."
Multiple Republican senators joined Democratic officials in demanding a thorough investigation and cooperation with state authorities. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana called for "a full joint federal and state investigation."
The demand represents a shift from the Trump administration's handling of Good's killing, which controversially excluded local investigators from the probe. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, said Saturday that "the federal government cannot be trusted to lead this investigation. The state will handle it, period."
The Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee requested that top officials testify at public hearings on the incidents.
Thousands of federal immigration agents have been deployed to Minneapolis for weeks as part of "Operation Metro Surge," following conservative media reports of alleged fraud by Somali immigrants. The city has one of the highest concentrations of Somali immigrants in the country.
The operation has sparked tensions in the heavily Democratic city, with many residents carrying whistles to alert others of agents' presence and sometimes violent confrontations erupting between officers and protesters.
Local authorities have filed a lawsuit seeking a court order to suspend the operation, with a first hearing scheduled for Monday. On Sunday, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to preserve all evidence from the Pretti killing.
Walz called for an immediate end to the deployment. "Minnesota believes in law and order. We believe in peace. And we believe that Trump needs to pull his 3,000 untrained agents out of Minnesota before they kill another American in the street," he wrote on social media Sunday.
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