{"id":262332,"date":"2026-01-24T22:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T22:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/262332\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T22:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T22:39:09","slug":"man-37-shot-dead-by-immigration-agent-as-trump-says-officials-inciting-insurrection-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/262332\/","title":{"rendered":"Man (37) shot dead by immigration agent as Trump says officials \u2018inciting insurrection\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man shot dead by masked immigration agents in the US<\/a> city of Minneapolis<\/a> on Saturday was a 37-year-old American citizen.<\/p>\n

Video circulating on social media shows the man being pinned to the ground by federal agents and then shot multiple times as he resists. <\/p>\n

The man was identified by his parents as Alex Pretti, a registered nurse working in the intensive care unit at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, which serves veterans.<\/p>\n

US border patrol commander Greg Bovino said at a news conference that an officer with eight years of experience at Mr Bovino\u2019s agency shot and killed Pretti.<\/p>\n

\"AlexAlex Pretti. Photograph: Michael Pretti via AP <\/p>\n

US president Donald Trump<\/a> posted a long statement about the shooting on his Truth Social account, in part accusing the city\u2019s mayor and the governor of \u201cinciting insurrection\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Mayor and the Governor are inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric!\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead, these sanctimonious political fools should be looking for the Billions of Dollars that has been stolen from the people of Minnesota, and the United States of America.<\/p>\n

\u201cLET OUR ICE<\/a> PATRIOTS DO THEIR JOB! 12,000 Illegal Alien Criminals, many of them violent, have been arrested and taken out of Minnesota. If they were still there, you would see something far worse than you are witnessing today!\u201d<\/p>\n

The shooting of Pretti comes less than three weeks after Renee Good was fatally shot by an Ice agent in her car at demonstration elsewhere in Minneapolis on January 7th.<\/p>\n

Pretti \u201cwanted to help people,\u201d said Dimitri Drekonja, chief of infectious diseases at the VA hospital and professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota, who worked with him at the hospital and on a research project. \u201cHe was a super nice, super helpful guy \u2013 looked after his patients. I\u2019m just stunned.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA protester is arrested as people gather after Ice agents shot and killed a man in Minneapolis on Saturday. Photograph: Craig Lassig\/EPA <\/p>\n

Open-source experts have begun to parse the apparent video evidence online, which appears to capture the sound of an initial shot causing the agents to retreat from Pretti before one fires at him repeatedly on the ground. At least one analyst suggested that the initial video might show that Pretti had a gun taken away from him before the shots were fired.<\/p>\n

A second, more comprehensive video of the shooting, obtained and posted online by Drop Site News, shows that Pretti appeared to come to the defence of an observer who was shoved to the ground by a federal officer. That officer then sprayed Pretti with a chemical agent, repeatedly, before tackling him to the street along with other agents.<\/p>\n

As at least five agents surrounded Pretti on the ground, one appeared to fire a shot at him at close range, followed by a volley of 10 more shots.<\/p>\n

At a news briefing earlier on Saturday, Minneapolis police chief Brian O\u2019Hara made it a point to say Pretti lived in Minneapolis and was an American citizen.<\/p>\n

His \u201conly interaction that we are aware of with law enforcement has been for traffic tickets, and we believe he is a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry\u201d, Mr O\u2019Hara said.<\/p>\n

Minnesota law allows citizens to obtain permits to carry handguns in public. The law does not require the concealment of those weapons.<\/p>\n

At the news conference, Mr O\u2019Hara also said: \u201cOur demand today is for those federal agencies operating in our city to do so with the same discipline, humanity and integrity that effective law enforcement demands.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe urge everyone to remain peaceful and recognise there is a lot of anger and questions around what has happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey directed comments at Mr Trump, telling him to remove the agents from the city before more Americans were hurt or killed. <\/p>\n

Contrary to what the president has claimed about arrests and detentions being needed to take violent immigrants off the streets, Mr Frey said it was the arrest operation that was bringing the unrest. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust yesterday we saw 15,000 people peacefully protesting in the streets, standing up for their neighbours, not a single broken window,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cConversely the masked militarised force and unidentified agents occupying our streets, that is what weakens our country and trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many more residents, how many more Americans need to die or get badly hurt for this operation to end?\u201d<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s governor Tim Walz and \u200dtwo US senators also called for federal agents to leave.<\/p>\n

Mr Walz posted on X: \u201cI just \u2060spoke with the White House \u200cafter \u200banother \u200dhorrific shooting by federal agents this morning … This is sickening. \u2060The President must \u2060end this operation. Pull the thousands of violent, \u200duntrained officers out of Minnesota. Now.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, assistant homeland security secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the shooting occurred at about 9.05am local time, \u201cas … officers were conducting a targeted operation in Minneapolis\u201d against a person they said was present in the country illegally and wanted for assault. Ms McLaughlin\u2019s statement said \u201can individual approached US border patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun\u201d, and that \u201cofficers attempted to disarm\u201d him.<\/p>\n

Ms McLaughlin\u2019s statement accused Pretti of having \u201cresisted\u201d and, without elaborating, said \u201cmore details on the armed struggle are forthcoming\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, an agent fired defensive shots,\u201d she said. \u201cMedics on scene immediately delivered medical aid to the subject but was pronounced dead at the scene.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that the man later identified as Pretti also had \u201ctwo magazines and no ID\u201d.<\/p>\n

The department distributed a photo of a handgun they said was on Pretti.<\/p>\n

\"FedearlFedearl agents respond as demonstators gather near the site of where a man was shot by federal agents earlier on Saturday in Minneapolis. Photograph: Roberto Schmidt\/AFP via Getty <\/p>\n

Live video of the scene after the shooting shows dozens of federal agents surrounding the scene, and a tense confrontation between hundreds of protesters who gathered in the area following the shooting as local police attempted to secure the area for crime scene investigators to move in. The agents were seen deploying what appears to be chemical irritants into the crowd. People were seen yelling at agents, honking horns and recording.<\/p>\n

One officer responded mockingly as he walked away, telling protesters: \u201cBoo hoo.\u201d Agents elsewhere shoved a yelling protester into a car.<\/p>\n

Protesters dragged rubbish bins from alleyways to block the streets, and people who gathered chanted: \u201cIce out now\u201d.<\/p>\n

Federal officers wielded batons and deployed flash bangs on the crowd.<\/p>\n

The intersection where the shooting took place was blocked off, and border patrol agents were on the scene wielding batons. <\/p>\n

Ms McLaughlin said that \u201ccrowd control measures were deployed for the safety of the public and law enforcement\u201d.<\/p>\n

She described the situation as \u201cevolving, and more information is forthcoming\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Saturday afternoon, officials with the city of Minneapolis asked community members \u201cwho wish to demonstrate to continue to do so safely, and we advise staying away from the scene at this time\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour right to protest is protected; however, vandalism and violence is not,\u201d they said. \u201cYour safety is paramount.\u201d \u2013 Additional reporting Guardian\/Reuters\/AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man shot dead by masked immigration agents in the US city of Minneapolis on Saturday was a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[969,42,66408,5461,25758,43,40,38,41,39,115],"class_list":{"0":"post-262332","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-ice-us-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","11":"tag-jd-vance","12":"tag-minneapolis","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-top-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-topnews","17":"tag-topstories","18":"tag-united-states"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}