Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told reporters that the victim, a 37-year-old man, died in the hospital on Saturday after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds, according to Al Jazeera.
Another United States citizen has been shot dead by federal agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in what authorities confirmed as the latest fatal incident linked to President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement operations in the city.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told reporters that the victim, a 37-year-old man, died in the hospital on Saturday after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds, according to Al Jazeera.
He confirmed that the deceased was a Minneapolis resident and a US citizen.
The man was later identified by his parents as Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse.
The killing occurred amid a weeks-long deployment of immigration enforcement and other federal agents to Minneapolis, where raids have intensified as part of Trump’s anti-immigration push.
The city has also witnessed daily protests following the January 7 shooting of another 37-year-old resident, Renee Good, who was killed after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer fired into her vehicle.
US security operatives also shot a Venezuelan man in a separate incident in Minneapolis last week.
Reacting to Saturday’s killing, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz described the federal operation as a campaign of violence.
“This long ago stopped being a matter of immigration enforcement,” Walz said at a news conference in Saint Paul. “It’s a campaign of organised brutality against the people of our state. And today, that campaign claimed another life.”
Walz added that Minnesota would handle the investigation into Pretti’s death.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), however, claimed that a Border Patrol agent shot a person who had a handgun and resisted efforts to be disarmed.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the agent fired “defensive shots” after a man with a handgun approached officers and “violently resisted” when they attempted to disarm him. Federal officials said the agent involved is an eight-year Border Patrol veteran.
President Trump responded on social media, attacking Governor Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. Sharing images of a gun that immigration officials said was recovered at the scene, Trump wrote, “What is that all about? Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers?”
Trump further accused the Democratic governor and mayor of “inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric”.
However, bystander videos circulating online contradict the official narrative.
In the footage, Pretti is seen standing in the street filming federal agents with his mobile phone. One agent appears to deploy pepper spray at Pretti and other protesters. As Pretti tries to block the spray and assist others, several agents wrestle him to the ground and strike him repeatedly on the head and body.
While agents pin him to the ground, one officer draws a weapon and multiple shots are fired. Pretti’s body is later seen lying motionless in the street.
Open-source investigation group Bellingcat said footage of the shooting “appears to show that a gun was taken from the man before the first shot was fired”.
“Two different agents are visibly firing their guns, with at least 10 shots being heard in total. Most of them are fired after a brief delay, when the man is already lying motionless on the ground,” the group said.
Police Chief O’Hara said investigators believe Pretti was “a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry”. Minnesota law allows open carry of firearms with a permit.
Pretti’s family, in a statement released Saturday evening, said they are “heartbroken but also very angry” and described him as a kind-hearted person who wanted to make a difference through his work as a nurse.
“The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed,” the family said.
The killing has intensified calls for the immediate withdrawal of heavily armed federal agents from Minneapolis as protests continue to rock the city.