Obama, Clinton urge Americans to ‘stand up’ after second Minneapolis shooting
Former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton on Sunday urged Americans to stand up and defend core US values after federal immigration agents fatally shot a Minneapolis man, sharply criticising President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, which he blamed on Democratic “chaos.”Issued on: 26/01/2026
By: FRANCE 24
02:04
Former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton issued pointed calls Sunday for America to stand up and defend their values after the second killing of a citizen in Minneapolis by immigration agents that Donald Trump blamed on Democratic "chaos."
The Trump administration has faced intensifying pressure over its mass immigration crackdown, particularly after federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, Saturday while scuffling with him on an icy roadway.
That incident came less than three weeks after an immigration officer fired on Renee Good, also 37, killing her in her car in the same Midwestern city.
Trump administration officials quickly claimed Pretti had intended to harm the federal agents -- as they did after Good's death -- pointing to a pistol they said was discovered on him.
However, video shared widely on social media and verified by US media showed Pretti never drawing a weapon, with agents firing at him seconds after he was sprayed in the face with chemical irritant and thrown to the ground.
Trump provocatively attributed the deaths to Minnesota's Democratic elected officials, including Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, writing on his Truth Social platform: "Democrat run Sanctuary Cities and States are REFUSING to cooperate with ICE."
Alex Pretti shooting: Right-wing media campaigns 'placed a target' on Minneapolis
"Tragically, two American Citizens have lost their lives as a result of this Democrat ensued chaos," he added.
After top officials described Pretti as an "assassin" who had assaulted the agents, Pretti's parents issued a statement Saturday condemning the administration's "sickening lies" about their son.
With tensions high, protesters gathered Sunday in Minneapolis, denouncing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). One person held a cardboard sign that read: "Be Pretti, be Good."
The double tragedies have stirred outrage, including from two of Trump's Democratic presidential predecessors. Barack and Michelle Obama on Sunday said in a statement that Pretti's shooting should be a "wake-up call" that core US values "are increasingly under assault."
Hours later Bill Clinton delivered a fierce indictment of the current administration, saying peaceful protesters "have been arrested, beaten, teargassed, and most searingly, in the cases of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, shot and killed."
"All of this is unacceptable," Clinton said in a statement as he urged Americans to "stand up, speak out."
"If we give our freedoms away after 250 years, we might never get them back."
US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, speaking to NBC's "Meet the Press," said an investigation was necessary.
While administration officials have defended the officer who shot Pretti, Trump in a brief Sunday interview with the Wall Street Journal declined twice to say whether the officer had acted appropriately.
"We're looking, we're reviewing everything and will come out with a determination," the president told the paper.
Multiple senators from Trump's Republican Party have called for a thorough probe into the killing, and for cooperation with local authorities.
Trump's administration controversially excluded local investigators from a probe into Good's death.
Walz posed a question directly to the president during a press briefing Sunday, asking: "What do we need to do to get these federal agents out of our state?"
On Sunday, business leaders from 60 corporations headquartered in Minnesota -- including retailer Target, food giant General Mills and several professional sports franchises -- signed an open letter "calling for an immediate de-escalation of tensions" and for authorities to work together.
Thousands of federal immigration agents have been deployed to heavily Democratic Minneapolis for weeks, after conservative media reported on alleged fraud by Somali immigrants, which Trump has repeatedly amplified.
The city, known for its bitterly cold winters, has one of the country's highest concentrations of Somali immigrants.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison pushed back against Trump's claim, telling reporters "it's not about fraud, because if he sent people who understand forensic accounting, we'd be having a different conversation. But he's sending armed masked men."
Since "Operation Metro Surge" began, many residents have carried whistles to notify others of the presence of immigration agents, while sometimes violent skirmishes have broken out between the officers and protesters.
Recent polling has shown voters increasingly upset with Trump's domestic immigration operations, as videos of masked agents seizing people off sidewalks -- including children -- proliferate.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
Video footage recorded by several witnesses to the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday shows that the 37-year-old nurse was holding a phone when he was pinned to the ground and shot, contradicting the claims of senior Trump administration officials who said Pretti “approached” officers with a gun.
Issued on: 25/01/2026
By: FRANCE 24
Video by: Eliza HERBERT
01:59
Videos quickly emerged showing the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis protester by a Border Patrol agent that has been widely denounced as a case of excessive force carried out by untrained federal officers. The administration says it was a case of an armed man provoking violence.
The Associated Press reviewed multiple bystander videos that show a Border Patrol agent shooting and killing 37-year-old Alex Pretti after a roughly 30-second scuffle around 9am Saturday. The videos appear to contradict statements by the Trump administration, which said the shots were fired “defensively” against Pretti as he “approached” them with a gun.
In the videos, Pretti is seen with only a phone in his hand. None of the footage appears to show him with a weapon. During the scuffle, agents discovered that he was carrying a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun, and they opened fire with several shots. Pretti was licensed to carry a concealed weapon.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who said he watched one of the videos, said he saw “more than six masked agents pummeling one of our constituents, shooting him to death." Frey has said Minneapolis and St. Paul are being “invaded” by the administration's largest immigration crackdown, dubbed Operation Metro Surge.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti attacked officers, and Customs and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino said Pretti wanted to do “maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” In posts on X, President Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, called Pretti "a would-be assassin.”
It was the second fatal shooting in Minneapolis by federal immigration authorities this month. The first, on January 7, involved Renee Good. It also was captured on videos and produced a similar schism among political leaders.
The shooting occurred when officers were pursuing a man in the country illegally wanted for domestic assault, Bovino said. Protesters routinely try to disrupt such operations, and they sounded high-pitched whistles, honked horns and yelled at officers.
Among them was Pretti. At one point, in a video obtained by AP, Pretti is standing in the street and holding up his phone. He is face-to-face with an officer in a tactical vest, who places his hand on Pretti and pushes him toward the sidewalk.
Pretti is talking to the officer, though it is not clear what he is saying.
The video shows protesters wandering in and out of the street as officers persist in trying to keep them at bay. One protester is put in handcuffs. Some officers are carrying pepper spray canisters.
Pretti comes in again when the video shows an officer wearing tactical gear shoving a protester. The protester, who is wearing a skirt over black tights and holding a water bottle, reaches out for Pretti.
The same officer shoves Pretti in his chest, leading Pretti and the other protester to stumble backward.
02:22
A different video then shows Pretti moving toward another protester, who falls over after being shoved by the same officer. Pretti moves between the protester and the officer, reaching his arms out toward the officer.
The officer deploys pepper spray, and Pretti raises his hand and turns his face. The officer grabs Pretti's hand to bring it behind his back, deploys the pepper spray canister again and then pushes Pretti away.
Seconds later, at least a half-dozen federal officers surround Pretti, who is wrestled to the ground and hit several times. Several agents try to bring Pretti’s arms behind his back, and he struggles.
Videos show an officer, who is hovering over the scuffle with his right hand on Pretti’s back, backs away from the group with what appears to be a gun in his right hand just before the first shot.
Someone shouts “gun, gun.” It is not clear if that’s a reference to the weapon authorities say Pretti had.
And then the first shot is heard.
Videos do not clearly show who fired the first shot. In one video, seconds before the first shot, one officer reaches for his belt and appears to draw his gun. That same officer is seen with a gun to Pretti’s back as three more shots ring out. Pretti slumps to the ground. Videos show the officers backing away, some with guns drawn. More shots are fired.
The Department of Homeland Security said Pretti was shot after he “approached” Border Patrol officers with a gun. Officials did not say if Pretti brandished the weapon or kept it hidden.
An agency statement said officers fired “defensive shots” after Pretti “violently resisted” officers tried to disarm him.
“I’ve seen the videos, from several angles, and it’s sickening,” he said.
Trump weighed in on social media by lashing out Walz and Frey. Trump shared images of the gun that immigration officials said was recovered from Pretti and said “What is that all about? Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers?”
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
What we know about Alex Pretti, the man shot dead by federal agents in Minneapolis
The parents of Alex Jeffrey Pretti, who was shot dead by a US Border Patrol officer in Minneapolis on Saturday, issued a written statement decrying top Trump administration officials who suggested their son was a “domestic terrorist”. They remembered their son, an ICU nurse, as a man dedicated to caring for others and a compassionate advocate for social justice.
Issued on: 25/01/2026
By: FRANCE 24
Video by: Eliza HERBERT
01:59
Family members of Alex Pretti, the man killed by a US Border Patrol officer in Minneapolis on Saturday, said he was an intensive care nurse at a VA hospital who cared deeply about people and was upset by President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in his city.
Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, was an avid outdoorsman who enjoyed getting in adventures with Joule, his beloved Catahoula Leopard dog who also recently died. He worked for the US Department of Veterans Affairs and had participated in protests following the January 7 killing of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs officer.
“He cared about people deeply and he was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the United States with ICE, as millions of other people are upset,” said Michael Pretti, Alex’s father. “He thought it was terrible, you know, kidnapping children, just grabbing people off the street. He cared about those people, and he knew it was wrong, so he did participate in protests.”
Pretti was a US citizen, born in Illinois. Like Good, court records showed he had no criminal record and his family said he had never had any interactions with law enforcement beyond a handful of traffic tickets.
In a recent conversation with their son, his parents, who live in Colorado, told him to be careful when protesting.
“We had this discussion with him two weeks ago or so, you know, that go ahead and protest, but do not engage, do not do anything stupid, basically,” Michael Pretti said. “And he said he knows that. He knew that.”
06:49
The Department of Homeland Security said the man was shot after he “approached” Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun. Officials did not specify if Pretti brandished the gun. In bystander videos of the shooting that emerged soon after, Pretti is seen with a phone in his hand but none appears to show him with a visible weapon.
Family members said Pretti owned a handgun and had a permit to carry a concealed handgun in Minnesota. They said they had never known him to carry it.
The family first learned of the shooting when they were called by an Associated Press reporter. They watched the video and said the man killed appeared to be their son. They then tried reaching out to officials in Minnesota.
“I can’t get any information from anybody,” Michael Pretti said Saturday. “The police, they said call Border Patrol, Border Patrol’s closed, the hospitals won’t answer any questions.”
Eventually, the parents called the Hennepin County Medical Examiner, who they said confirmed had a body matching the name and description of their son.
As of Saturday evening, the family said they had still not heard from anyone at a federal law enforcement agency about their son's death.
After seeing videos of top Trump administration officials suggesting their son was a “domestic terrorist” who attacked the officers who shot him, they issued a written statement describing themselves as both heartbroken and angry.
08:51
"The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting," the family's statement said. They added that videos showed Alex Pretti was not holding a gun when he was tackled by federal agents, but holding his phone with one hand and using the other to shield a woman who was being pepper-sprayed.
“Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man,” they said.
Alex Pretti grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he played football, baseball and ran track for Preble High School. He was a Boy Scout and sang in the Green Bay Boy Choir.
After graduation, he went to the University of Minnesota, graduating in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in biology, society and the environment, according to the family. He worked as a research scientist before returning to school to become a registered nurse.
Pretti’s ex-wife, who spoke to the AP but later said she didn’t want her name used, said she was not surprised he would have been involved in protesting Trump’s immigration crackdown. She said she had not spoken to him since they divorced more than two years ago and she moved to another state.
She said he was a Democratic voter and that he had participated in the wave of street protests following the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, not far from the couple’s neighbourhood. She described him a someone who might shout at law enforcement officers at a protest, but she had never known him to be physically confrontational.
She said Pretti got a permit to carry a concealed firearm about three years ago and that he owned at least one semiautomatic handgun when they separated.
Pretti lived in a four-unit condominium building about 2 miles (3.2 kilometres) from where he was shot. Neighbours described him as quiet and warmhearted.
“He’s a wonderful person,” said Sue Gitar, who lived downstairs from Pretti and said he moved into the building about three years ago. “He has a great heart.”
If there was something suspicious going on in the neighborhood, or when they worried the building might have a gas leak, he would jump in to help.
Pretti lived alone and worked long hours as a nurse, but he was not a loner, his neighbours said, and would sometimes have friends over.
His neighbours knew he had guns – he’d occasionally take a rifle to shoot at a gun range – but were surprised at the idea that he might carry a pistol on the streets.
“I never thought of him as a person who carried a gun,” said Gitar.
A competitive bicycle racer who lavished care on his new Audi, Pretti had also been deeply attached to his dog, who died about a year ago.
His parents said their last conversation with their son was a couple days before his death. They talked about repairs he had done to the garage door of his home. The worker was a Latino man, and they said with all that was happening in Minneapolis he gave the man a $100 tip.
Pretti’s mother said her son cared immensely about the direction the county was headed, especially the Trump administration’s rollback of environmental regulations.
“He hated that, you know, people were just trashing the land,” Susan Pretti said. “He was an outdoorsman. He took his dog everywhere he went. You know, he loved this country, but he hated what people were doing to it.”
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
Calls grow for ICE to leave Minnesota after latest shooting of citizen
Hundreds of protesters took to the streets after the shooting, while several Democrats demanded that federal immigration officers leave Minnesota.
Democrats and protesters are demanding that federal immigration officers leave Minnesota after a US Border Patrol agent fatally shot a man in Minneapolis, the second such shooting of a US citizen in the city in the last three weeks.
The man who was killed has been identified as Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse.
After the shooting, hundreds of people took to the streets to protest against the presence of federal immigration agents in their state, clashing with federal officers who wielded batons and deployed flash bangs.
During a press conference alongside Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and other lawmakers following the shooting, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar said: “Right now, we are focused on getting ICE out of this state and of course we will use every lever that we have. But I do remind people that Donald Trump runs the White House and sadly, to date we have not seen the Republican members of Congress standing up. He also seems to run the Congress.” Klobuchar also called on Republicans to stand with them.
Mayor Frey said the city is filing a declaration to encourage a judge to rule on a temporary restraining order that would “grant us immediate relief and help stop this operation that has been so harmful to the city.”
In a statement of its own, the Department of Homeland Security said a man approached Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun and resisted attempts to disarm him during an operation. The statement claimed that agents fired “defensive shots”.
But in bystander videos of the shooting that emerged soon after, Pretti is seen with a phone in his hand with no clear sign of him wielding a weapon.
Just a few weeks earlier, a 37-year-old woman and mother of three, Renee Good, was fatally shot by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer while she was behind the wheel of her car, sparking public outrage and protests.
Trump accuses Democrats of 'insurrection'
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump lashed out at Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and the Minneapolis mayor on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Trump posted images of the gun that immigration officials said was recovered, commenting: “What is that all about? Where are the local police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE officers?”
Trump also said the Democratic governor and mayor are “inciting insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous and arrogant rhetoric.”
Walz said the state would lead the investigation into the shooting, saying he has no confidence in federal officials.
But federal officers blocked Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension from the scene even after it obtained a signed judicial warrant, its superintendent Drew Evans said.
Who was Alex Pretti?
Family members said Pretti was an ICU nurse at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital who cared deeply about others and was upset by President Donald Trump’s actions on immigration in the city. According to the family, Pretti had attended protests after the recent killing of Renee Good by another ICE officer on 7 January.
Alex’s father, Michael Pretti, said: “He thought it was terrible — you know, kidnapping children, just grabbing people off the street. He cared about those people, and he knew it was wrong, so he did participate in protests.”
Court records show he had no criminal record, and his family said he had never had any dealings with law enforcement apart from a handful of traffic tickets.
According to family members, Pretti possessed a handgun and had a licence to carry a concealed firearm in Minnesota. However, they said they had never known him to carry it.
Bruce Springsteen hits out at Donald Trump and ICE: ‘Get the f*ck out of Minneapolis’
Bruce Springsteen has hit out at ICE and the Trump administration, and dedicated a song to Renee Good, the American citizen who was fatally shot by an ICE agent earlier this month.
Bruce Springsteen has called out ICE for their “Gestapo tactics” and told them to “get the f*ck out of Minneapolis” during an appearance on stage in New Jersey this weekend.
The Boss, a longtime critic of Donald Trump and his administration, appeared at the Light Of Day Winter Festival on 17 January – an annual event that raises funds for Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. During his performance, he bemoaned what his country has become under Trump’s rule.
Introducing the song ‘The Promised Land’, he said: “I wrote this song as an ode to American possibility. It was about a both beautiful but flawed country that we are, and the country that we could be”.
“Right now, we are living through incredibly critical times. The United States, the ideals and the values for which it stood for the past 250 years, is being tested as it’s never been in modern times.”
Referring to recent news, he added: “If you believe in the power of the law and that no one stands above it, if you stand against heavily armed masked federal troops invading an American city, using Gestapo tactics against our fellow citizens, if you believe you don’t deserve to be murdered for exercising your American right to protest, send a message to this president as the mayor of that city has said, ICE should get the fuck out of Minneapolis.”
He dedicated ‘The Promised Land’ to Renee Good, the 37-year-old American citizen who was fatally shot by an ICE agent on 7 January.
“This song is for you and the memory of a mother of three, American Renee Good.”
The killing of Good has triggered mass protests across the country, while Donald Trump and JD Vance have claimed that Good was trying to run over the agents with her car and that the officer was acting in self-defense.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz urged the public not to fall for what he called the “propaganda machine”, while Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a press conference: “This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying, getting killed.”
“They're already trying to spin this as an action of self-defence,” Frey added. “Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly - that is bullsh*t.”
Frey called for federal agents to leave Minneapolis, declaring: “Get the f*ck out of Minneapolis.”
Springsteen, who has previously called for Trump to be impeached and said that he was “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous”, joins other celebrity voices who are protesting ICE and Trump’s administration.
Billie Eilish recently shared posts online calling ICE a “federally funded and supported terrorist group”, while Stranger Things’ Joe Kerry took to social media to hit out at Donald Trump for his lack of compassion in the wake of Good’s death.
At last week’s Golden Globe Awards, several actors could be seen wearing anti-ICE pins, including Mark Ruffalo, who blasted Trump as the “worst human being” during a red carpet interview.
“If we're relying on this guy's morality for the most powerful country in the world, then we're all in a lot of trouble,” Ruffalo told USA Today. “So this is for (Good). This is for the people in the United States who are terrorized and scared tod
ay. I know I'm one of them. I love this country. And what I'm seeing here happening is not America.”
