Federal Agents Shoot And Kill Man In South Minneapolis Operation

MINNEAPOLIS (WJON News) -- A man has been shot and killed by Federal Border Patrol agents in south Minneapolis on Saturday morning.

He's been identified as 37-year-old Alex Pretti.  A Minneapolis resident. His friends and family say he was an ICU nurse at the VA.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz held a news conference about the latest deadly incident on Saturday afternoon.  He said, "The federal occupation of Minnesota long ago stopped being about immigration enforcement." He said he's seen the video of the shooting from several angles.  He says Minnesota law enforcement must be the ones leading the investigation into the shooting.

Walz says Minnesota is keeping a log of evidence for future criminal charges against agents.

The BCA Force Investigations Unit says Minneapolis police have requested them to investigate Saturday morning’s federal agent-involved shooting in Minneapolis. However, their agents and crime scene personnel attempted to access the location but were blocked by DHS personnel at the scene.

MN BCA Superintendent Drew Evans, at a Saturday afternoon news conference, tried to obtain a search warrant to access the scene but was again blocked by the federal government. He says it is his understanding that the DHS will be leading the investigation and not the FBI.

Evans says he welcomes any additional or new information from the public.  Evans calls the recent deadly shootings uncharted territory, with the lack of cooperation from the federal partners, who he says have worked well together on other use-of-force incidents in the past.  

Walz called on President Donald Trump to remove federal officials from the streets of Minneapolis.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey says, "Today, we lost another Minneapolis neighbor after multiple ICE agents pummeled him and shot him to death."

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Rob Doar from the Minnesota Gun Owners Law Center says the video he has seen appears to show an agent remove Pretti's gun from its holster before another agent shot him.

Sixth District Congressman Tom Emmer released a statement,

The governor and local leaders’ rhetoric has empowered criminals and put federal law enforcement’s lives at risk. It’s dangerous and has made the situation in Minneapolis much worse. Unlike my Democrat colleagues, I’m going to let law enforcement conduct their investigation and not jump to asinine conclusions. We are grateful no Border Patrol officers were harmed.

The Department of Homeland Security released a statement about the shooting shortly after the incident.

At 9:05 AM CT, as DHS law enforcement officers were conducting a targeted operation in Minneapolis against an illegal alien wanted for violent assault, an individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun, seen here.  The officers attempted to disarm the suspect but the armed suspect violently resisted. More details on the armed struggle are forthcoming. Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, an agent fired defensive shots. Medics on scene immediately delivered medical aid to the subject but was pronounced dead at the scene.  The suspect also had 2 magazines and no ID—this looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.