2nd person, this time an ICU nurse, shot & killed in Minnesota by US federal agents in 1 month

A second person has been killed by officers of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) in the city of Minneapolis.

Second person in January killed

According to the BBC, a 37-year-old nurse, Alex Pretti, was fatally shot by ICE agents in Minneapolis on Jan. 24.

This is the second person to be killed by members of ICE in the city in January, after the Jan. 7 shooting of Renee Good.

Multiple videos of the incident have been circulating on social media, and according to the Guardian, they show Pretti intervening after a member of ICE shoves a woman to the ground.

All the while, loud whistles can be heard in the background, used by local residents as a warning that ICE agents are operating in an area.

He is then sprayed with what the Guardian identified as a chemical agent, before being wrestled to the ground by three to five members of ICE, who completely surrounded him.

Several gunshots are heard as the agents shoot the man while he is on the ground.

Legally armed

The Associated Press reports that Pretti, a U.S. citizen without a criminal record, was using his phone to film the activities of the agents, but that he was also armed with a pistol.

Local police have said that Pretti was a law-abiding gun owner with a licence to carry a concealed weapon, and ICE has released an image of the gun they say Pretti had with him at the time.

The governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, said in a statement that his state has “had it” and that President Donald Trump “must end this operation” and called for him to “pull the thousands of violent, untrained officers out of Minnesota now”.

Minneapolis is a city in Minnesota, and ICE was initially sent into the state after allegations were made that several childcare facilities in Minneapolis operated by residents of Somali origin were committing welfare fraud.

Since early January as many as two thousand ICE agents have been deployed, a move that has provoked significant protests by residents, regardless of ethnic origin.

Agents have conducted their operations in what some have termed an unacceptable manner, arresting young children and the elderly, including legal U.S. citizens.

On Jan. 23, thousands of protestors took to the streets in minus 30 degrees Celsius weather to protest the presence of ICE agents in the city, calling for a general strike.

Protests in support of Pretti were held in the city and several cities throughout the U.S. after his shooting.

Defensive shots

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the shooting, with a spokesperson claiming that agents were carrying out a “targeted operation” when an armed man approached them.

They claimed that agents had attempted to disarm the suspect, but that he had violently resisted before an officer, “fearing for his life,” fired “defensive shots”.

Trump called for ICE agents to be allowed to carry out their work and blamed local officials for not being “allowed to protect ICE officers”.

Friends and family that the AP spoke to paid tribute to him as a “good man” with a “great heart”.

AP reported how Pretti’s family had struggled to get information on their son’s condition, saying that the Trump administration’s characterisation of Pretti as a “domestic terrorist” was “sickening lies”.

Top image via Ryan Grim/X & James Martin/X