CloseThe man shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis Saturday has been named as Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse.
Federal officials accused Pretti of attempting to assassinate officers with a pistol.
Publicly available video doesn’t show Pretti pointing or drawing any weapon and threatening officers.
Another video shows him attempting to stand between federal agents and a person one of them has just pushed to the ground.
A group of about six officers then stand over Pretti and wrestle him to the ground, scattering after shots ring out. One angle of the encounter seems to show an officer pulling a pistol resembling the one found on Pretti just before the shooting begins.
Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara said Pretti was a “lawful gun owner” with a permit.
Federal officials didn’t provide any footage or a detailed timeline of the encounter, merely pointing to the gun as evidence Pretti was attempting an attack.
State officials accused federal agents of obstructing their access as they sought to investigate the crime scene.
Pretti’s is the second fatal shooting of a Minneapolis protester in less than three weeks, after a federal agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, 37, earlier this month.
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ICU nurse with no criminal record who ‘cared deeply for people’: What we know about Alex Pretti, victim of DHS shooting
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Senior White House official calls ICU nurse shot dead in Minneapolis as a 'would-be assassin'
Stephen Miller, deputy White House chief of staff and the mastermind behind Trump’s immigration strategy, has accused the ICU nurse shot dead in the Minneapolis shooting as an “assassin”.
The senior Trump administration official said Pretti was a “would-be assassin” who “tried to murder federal law enforcement,” but did not provide any evidence to back up the claim.
The man was identified by his family as Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a US citizen and an intensive care unit nurse.
The surge is Homeland Security’s largest immigration enforcement operation yet, with officers facing allegations of unlawfully targeting immigrants and citizens alike and facing off against protesters in violent clashes.
Arpan Rai25 January 2026 06:42
ICU nurse with no criminal record who ‘cared deeply for people’: What we know about Alex Pretti, victim of DHS shooting
Federal immigration officers have shot and killed another American citizen in Minneapolis, just 17 days after they fatally shot Renee Good.
The victim of the shooting was identified as Alex Pretti, 37. He was near 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis on Saturday morning, filming DHS agents during an operation.
Open-sourced capturing the incident shows Pretti moving to assist a pair of individuals on the sidewalk near the agents, who then began pepper-spraying the group.
The victim is tackled by a group of at least five agents and dragged to the ground. The footage shows the Border Patrol agents struggling with Pretti on the ground and striking him when a gunshot is heard. A moment later, an agent fires multiple shots while Pretti is down on the pavement.
Ten shots were fired within five seconds.
What we know about Alex Pretti, victim of DHS shooting
Alex Pretti worked as an ICU nurse and had spent time working with the Department of Veterans AffairsArpan Rai25 January 2026 06:22
Court filings detail shocking aftermath of Minnesota shooting
A series of court filings in an ongoing lawsuit challenging Trump administration immigration tactics in Minnesota has revealed new details about the immediate aftermath of the shooting of Alex Pretti by federal officers.
One of the observers of the shooting submitted a legal declaration that she believes the federal government is making inaccurate claims about the incident.
“The man did not approach the agents with a gun,” she said. “He approached them with a camera. He was just trying to help a woman get up and they took him to the ground.”
She added that she felt “afraid” and feels she can’t go home “because I heard agents were looking for me.”
Another declaration, from a doctor who lived nearby the shooting, claims they were initially barred from rendering first aid to Pretti and watched as officers allegedly did not render CPR.
Eventually, according to the documents, agents let the physician through, where they said they saw three bullet wounds in Pretti’s back.
The doctor claims agents were not aware if Pretti had a pulse and instead had spent their time counting the bullet wounds in his body.
The filings come as lawyers ask an appeals court to reinstate use of force restrictions on federal agents in the state, as part of a lawsuit against the Trump administration.
Josh Marcus25 January 2026 06:00
Protesters demand immigration agents leave Minneapolis after man is shot
Democrats are demandeding that federal immigration officers leave Minnesota after a US Border Patrol agent fatally a man in Minneapolis, drawing hundreds of protesters onto the frigid streets and increasing tensions in a city already shaken by another shooting death weeks earlier.
Family members identified the man who was killed as Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse who protested President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown in his city. After the shooting, an angry crowd gathered and protesters clashed with federal officers, who wielded batons and deployed flash bangs.
The Minnesota National Guard was assisting local police at the direction of governor Tim Walz, officials said. Guard troops were sent to both the shooting site and a federal building where officers have squared off with demonstrators daily.
In Minneapolis, protesters converged at the scene of the shooting in Minneapolis despite dangerously cold weather — by the afternoon the worst of an extreme cold wave was over, but the temperature was still -6 degrees (-21 Celsius).
An angry crowd gathered after the shooting and screamed profanities at federal officers, calling them "cowards" and telling them to go home. One officer responded mockingly as he walked away, telling them: "Boo hoo."
Agents elsewhere shoved a yelling protester into a car. Protesters dragged garbage dumpsters from alleyways to block streets, and people chanted "ICE out now" and "Observing ICE is not a crime."
Arpan Rai25 January 2026 05:53
Republican senator calls Alex Pretti a 'deranged' individual
Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma on Saturday blamed local Democratic leaders in Minnesota for creating the tense political climate he alleges led to Alex Pretti’s killing.
In an interview with Fox News, Mullin, a Republican, echoed the Trump administration’s unproven assertions that Pretti was a domestic terrorist intent on harming agents, calling him “a deranged individual that came in to cause max damage.”
“How much more is this going to go on before the Democrat leaders there take responsibility for their words?” Mullin continued.
Video shows Pretti approaching agents while holding a cell phone, and federal officials have not clearly answered questions regarding whether the Minnesota man ever raised a weapon or threatened officers before a group of federal agents fatally shot him Saturday morning.
Josh Marcus25 January 2026 05:30
Former top DHS lawyer under Trump condemns agency's 'fascism'
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Former Trump administration lawyer John Mitnick had scathing criticism for his former agency, the Department of Homeland Security, after DHS fatally shot a Minneapolis man on Saturday.
Mitnick, who served as DHS general counsel in the first Trump administration, called for Trump’s impeachment in a post on X.
“I am enraged and embarrassed by DHS’s lawlessness, fascism, and cruelty,” he wrote. “Impeach and remove Trump—now.”
Josh Marcus25 January 2026 05:00
ICYMI: Here are the key details about today's shooting
Federal immigration officers shot and killed a 37-year-old man in the frozen streets of Minneapolis, drawing more protests and fierce outrage from a city shaken by Donald Trump’s weeks-long surge of agents.
Video footage from Saturday morning’s scene appears to show several officers tackling a man who was filming officers in the street with other demonstrators. As agents wrestled with the man, at least 10 shots were fired within five seconds.
The man was identified by his family as Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a U.S. citizen and an intensive care unit nurse.
The latest fatal shooting in Minneapolis, roughly two weeks after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot Renee Good, also follows widespread demonstrations and fierce resistance against what city officials are calling a federal “occupation.”
Alex Woodward reports.
How an anti-ICE protester came to be shot dead by federal agents
The White House has claimed without providing evidence that Alex Pretti was a ‘would-be assassin’ who was trying to murder federal agents, while Democratic leaders in Minnesota have called for calm in the wake of the latest fatal shooting of a protesterJosh Marcus25 January 2026 04:30
House Republican pushes for DHS bosses to testify in Congress
Republican officials are pushing for the heads of top DHS agencies to testify before Congress, as agencies like the Border Patrol and ICE face heavy scrutiny for their tactics in Minneapolis.
On Saturday, House Homeland Security chairman Rep. Andrew Garbarino reiterated a request from earlier this month for the chiefs of ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to appear before the committee.
“Congress has an important responsibility to ensure the safety of law enforcement and the people they serve and protect,” the committee’s Republicans wrote on X on Saturday.
It’s unclear if today’s letters were sent before the Minneapolis shooting occurred.
Republicans in Congress have largely showed support for the president’s deportation campaign so far.
Josh Marcus25 January 2026 04:10
Veterans group condemns shooting of Alex Pretti, who was VA nurse
Common Defense, a progressive veterans advocacy group, condemned Saturday’s fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, who served as an intensive care nurse at a veterans hospital in Minneapolis.
“This is not normal,” Air Force veteran and Minneapolis resident Jacob Thomas, who is the group’s communications director, told The Independent. “Yesterday, thousands of Minneapolis residents joined a peaceful general strike against this authoritarian overreach. And today, federal agents shot and killed yet another human being on the street. It is beyond clear that ICE and DHS are out of control. We are calling for an immediate suspension of all ICE operations in Minnesota and throughout the country before any more of our neighbors are murdered by Trump’s intimidation force. As veterans who swore an oath to this country and the constitution, we call on every American to stand up against Trump’s lawlessness and reject the occupation of our beloved communities.”
Josh Marcus25 January 2026 03:50
Attorney General vows 'more arrests' in Minnesota crackdown
Attorney General Pam Bondi on Saturday signaled further arrests are coming in the Trump administration’s ongoing crackdown on Minnesota.
In a post on X, in response to calls for the administration to declare the state had launched an insurrection, Bondi touted the administration’s ongoing efforts in Minnesota, which has included flooding the Minneapolis area with immigration agents and launching investigations into top city and state officials.
“The full weight of federal law enforcement is engaged in Minnesota and this Department of Justice is advancing action on every front,” Bondi wrote. “[Gov. Tim] Walz, [Attorney General Keith] Ellison and [Minneapolis Mayor Jacob] Frey have acknowledged receipt of federal grand jury subpoenas from this DOJ. We have arrested multiple individuals in the Cities Church attack and will continue to fight for our religious organizations. Today we arrested a man who violently assaulted an HSI agent. More arrests are coming. Meanwhile, our attorneys are relentlessly fighting to defeat the unprecedented judicial activism unfolding in Minnesota. Accountability is coming.”
