Minneapolis protests against ‘impunity’ of the immigration agents who killed Alex Pretti

Minneapolis awoke Sunday to a ghostly, deserted atmosphere, still reeling from the government’s version of events—which appears to be riddled with falsehoods—defending the immigration agents who killed a 37-year-old nurse the previous day while he was on the ground. There was also a mix of anger, indignation, and weariness after nearly a month of resisting the deployment of 3,000 federal agents who are not welcome on these streets.

The site where Alex Pretti was killed—he had been protesting the deployment of agents on Saturday and had stepped in between a group of officers and a woman being pepper sprayed, before being shot at point-blank range a dozen times—became the focal point of protests in the early hours of another day of clashes. Hundreds of people began gathering shortly after dawn on Nicolett Avenue, one of the main thoroughfares of this Midwestern city, to see for themselves what the entire world had been witnessing for the past 24 hours in videos taken by witnesses: the scene of a tragedy that has inflamed tensions in a city already on edge.

It was yet another demonstration that, despite adverse conditions, with temperatures as low as -25ºC (-13ºF), Minneapolis residents of all ages, socioeconomic status and ethnic groups — 50,000 of whom demonstrated on Friday despite the unfathomable cold — do not intend to back down in their denunciation of Trump’s authoritarian escalation, which has put them in the crosshairs.

At the crime scene, with no sign this Sunday of the federal agents who had sown panic the day before, the outcry against the “lies” of federal authorities was unanimous. “Do they think we’re fools? It was a cold-blooded murder. We’ve all seen the videos of what happened!” Exclaimed Brad Williams, who, wearing only a Palestinian scarf, said he had come straight from his night shift. “They’re going after Democratic cities, and they want to take control of the state to rig the November elections,” he added, before criticizing the government’s “impunity.”

Nero Taylor, an African American man carrying a whistle and covered in Black Panther pins, stood behind the makeshift altar in Pretti’s memory and addressed the crowd, trying to calm a man who was yelling at the police. He recalled his active participation in the Black Lives Matter protests in Minneapolis after the 2020 murder of George Floyd, criticized the mainstream American media for their lukewarm response, and warned, “They are killing us.” Omar, a U.S. Citizen of Panamanian descent, explained that Hispanics in Minneapolis “are afraid to leave their homes,” while Mary Reyelgs, a white woman in her seventies, said, “I don’t recognize my country anymore. It’s not the piece of land I once loved so much.”

Across the street, the Glam Doll donut shop, world-famous despite itself and now synonymous with Pretti’s death since Saturday, was overwhelmed with customers, who were giving food to the international press as a “sign of gratitude.” “Explain to the world what’s happening here,” pleaded a woman on the verge of tears.

Behind the counter, Theresa, one of the employees, recounted how the previous day they had worked overtime, giving away free donuts and coffee to the protesters who arrived after hearing the tragic news. While waiting for his order, Bill Kass, a restaurant inspector, explained that this is an area with many Latino businesses and that he thought he knew who the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were looking for on Saturday when it all happened. “No one is safe in this city anymore,” he said, unable to hide his emotion. “I’m afraid they might come and kick down my door any day now.”

Pretti is the second American citizen to lose his life in the largest anti-immigration operation launched by the White House in the last year. Eighteen days ago, the tragedy claimed the life of Renee Good, a 37-year-old poet and mother of three, who was killed while driving her car, just after telling the man who shot her three times, “It’s okay, I’m not mad at you.”

In both cases, which add to another recent incident in which a Venezuelan immigrant was shot in the leg, and to the detention for subsequent deportation of a five-year-old boy named Liam Conejo, whose tearful and frightened face has become a symbol of the takeover of Minneapolis, Trump and his supporters rushed to blame the victims.

In Pretti’s case, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who led the operation, called him a “domestic terrorist” and said he was “brandishing a weapon.” President Trump referred to him as a “gunman” before awaiting the investigation’s findings.

Videos of the incident seem to disprove the version that the officers acted in “self-defense.” Twenty-four hours after it happened, Minneapolis residents have viewed those images roughly a million times. And they tell a very different story.

At midday Sunday, the crowd overflowing the perimeter waved signs reading “Fuck ICE,” and Michael Cavlan, a nurse who volunteers to help protesters recover from the effects of tear gas said he arrived shortly after Pretti was killed and that the feds wouldn’t let them intervene. “They don’t want witnesses.”

On Saturday, ICE had cordoned off the area and blocked traffic on dozens of surrounding streets. That didn’t stop hundreds of people from walking up to ten blocks to get closer to the spot where Pretti was killed. As the hours passed, the makeshift memorial began to grow, adorned with photos, candles, messages against Trump, lists of signs to detect the rise of fascism, and expressions of gratitude to the victim for his work as a nurse in the intensive care unit of a veterans’ hospital.

On Saturday night, after a vigil in a nearby park, the victim’s family reacted, describing the White House’s version of events in a statement as “sickening lies.” “Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. (...) Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs,” the statement read.

Gregory Bovino, commander of the Border Patrol—and therefore in charge of the man who pulled the trigger multiple times, whom he described as a veteran with “eight years of experience”—repeatedly dodged questions from CNN anchor Dana Bash during an interview on Sunday. Bovino appeared in the uniform and with the demeanor that has made him the face of the most violent tactics in Trump’s crusade against immigration, and which have partly led author Stephen King to describe ICE as “the American Gestapo.”

The neighbors who came to the crime scene Sunday morning don’t expect much from the same authorities who have been refusing for weeks to acknowledge that Renée Good was murdered, as Katie and Rachel pointed out. Rachel was carrying an upside-down American flag that read: “ICE Out.” The two friends, who had come from Mankato, an hour and a half away by car, also couldn’t hold back their tears as they recalled that on Saturday, in that same spot, immigration agents killed a 37-year-old nurse for taking out his cell phone and recording them.

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