Overview
- Federal agents shot and killed 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti during an immigration operation in Minneapolis, with DHS asserting he was armed and acting threateningly.
- Verified videos circulated by news outlets show Pretti filming with a phone, being pepper-sprayed and forced to the ground, and then shot as he lay prone, raising doubts about the government’s account.
- Hennepin County prosecutors and Minnesota’s state investigators sued for access to the scene, and U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud ordered the government not to destroy or alter related evidence after local investigators were initially blocked.
- Mass protests, work stoppages, and dozens of arrests followed weeks of aggressive ICE and Border Patrol actions under “Operation Metro Surge,” including the widely condemned detention of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos.
- President Trump defended the agents and blamed Democrats as Senate Democrats threatened to block Homeland Security funding, while Germany updated travel guidance warning of potentially violent confrontations in Minneapolis.