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\nA man is arrested during the protests in Minneapolis<\/p>\n
United States immigration agents shot and killed a US citizen in Minneapolis, officials said, sparking fierce protests and condemnations from local leaders in the second such incident this month.<\/p>\n
Officials with the Department of Homeland Security said a Border Patrol agent fired in defence after a man they said had a handgun resisted their attempts to disarm him.<\/p>\n
But bystander videos from the scene verified and reviewed by Reuters showed the man, identified as 37-year-old Alex Pretti, holding a phone in his hand, not a gun, as he tries to help other protesters who have been pushed to the ground by agents.<\/p>\n
Mr Pretti was a nurse who worked at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n
The bystander videos show one of the agents apparently deploying pepper spray at Mr Pretti and other protesters.<\/p>\n
Watch: Video shows law enforcement agents running towards scene of fatal shooting
Warning: Distressing images and profanity<\/p>\n
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While Mr Pretti attempts to block the spray and help other protesters, several agents wrestle him to the ground and begin striking him with blows to the head and body.<\/p>\n
As they hold Mr Pretti on the ground, one of the agents draws his weapon and multiple shots are fired. Mr Pretti’s body can then be seen in the street.<\/p>\n
The shooting drew hundreds of protesters to the area to confront the armed and masked agents, who deployed tear gas and flashbang grenades.<\/p>\n
State officials were already at odds with US President Donald Trump’s administration over the shooting of another US citizen by federal immigration agents.<\/p>\n
Government officials have said an immigration agent was acting in self-defence when he shot 37-year-old Renee Good on 7 January.<\/p>\n
They have refused to allow local officials to participate in their investigation of the incident.<\/p>\n
\nA man is arrested during the protests in Minneapolis<\/p>\n
Police say man was a lawful gun owner<\/p>\n
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters Mr Pretti had attacked agents on an immigration raid, though she did not say whether he pulled out his weapon.<\/p>\n
“He wasn’t there to peacefully protest. He was there to perpetuate violence,” Ms Noem said at a news conference.<\/p>\n
Among local leaders who sharply \u2060questioned that account was Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.<\/p>\n
“I’ve seen the video from several angles and it’s sickening,” Mr Walz said.<\/p>\n
“The federal government cannot be trusted to lead this investigation – the state will handle it.”<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0023cb6d-614.jpg\"\/)
\nA Minneapolis police officer throws a can of tear gas at people gathered after the fatal shooting<\/p>\n
The head of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Drew Evans, told reporters that federal agents \u2060blocked his team’s attempts to begin an investigation yesterday.<\/p>\n
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the man who was killed was a lawful gun owner with no criminal record other than traffic violations.<\/p>\n
As people protested the shooting, city police and state troopers arrived to manage the crowd.<\/p>\n
The situation appeared to have calmed after \u2060federal agents left the area, though protesters \u2060remained on the streets for hours afterward.<\/p>\n
Local officials pleaded for restraint. “Please do not destroy our city,” Mr O’Hara said.<\/p>\n
Minneapolis officials, in a statement, said National Guard members would support local police at the scene of the shooting at the request of local officials to the governor.<\/p>\n
The nearby Minneapolis Institute of Art said it had closed for the day due to safety concerns, and the National Basketball Association postponed a Minnesota Timberwolves game.<\/p>\n
Watch: ‘How many more residents need to die for this operation to end?’ asks Minneapolis mayor<\/p>\n
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Mr Walz \u2060and other local and state officials called for an immediate end to the Trump administration’s local immigration enforcement operations.<\/p>\n
“How many more residents, how many more Americans need to die or get badly hurt for this operation to end?” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said at a press conference.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump accused local elected officials of stirring up opposition.<\/p>\n
“The Mayor and the Governor are inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric,” he wrote on social media.<\/p>\n
Vice President JD Vance, who visited the city on Thursday, accused local leaders of refusing to provide local police support to immigration agents.<\/p>\n
That drew a fierce response from Mr Walz, who said the immigration crackdown has strained local police resources.<\/p>\n
The shooting came one day after more than 10,000 people took to the streets in freezing temperatures to protest the crackdown.<\/p>\n
Residents had already been angered by several incidents, including the killing of Ms Good, the detention of a US citizen who was taken from his home in his shorts, and the detention of \u2060school children, including a five-year-old boy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"United States immigration agents shot and killed a US citizen in Minneapolis, officials said, sparking fierce protests and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-428657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}