Federal agent shoots and kills man in Minneapolis, officials say

Federal agent shoots and kills man in Minneapolis, officials say

Officials confirmed that a federal agent shot a person in south Minneapolis, prompting a heavy law-enforcement response, street closures and sharp condemnation from Gov. Tim Walz.

 

Man fatally shot in federal agent confrontation in South Minneapolis -  Axios Twin Cities

 

What we know

  • A Border Patrol agent shot and killed a 37-year-old man in Minneapolis today. This is the second person federal officers have killed in the city in less than three weeks.
  • The deceased was identified by family members and officials as Alex Jeffrey Pretti.
  • Videos of the incident show the man checking on a woman who was pushed by federal officers. The officers and the man then got into an altercation.
  • President Donald Trump and Department of Homeland Security officials said the man had a handgun on him during his struggle with the officers. It is not clear in videos if the man was holding the weapon. He was licensed to carry a firearm.
  • DHS officials said the agent fired “fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers.”
  • Dozens of masked federal immigration agents were on the scene, and tense protests are ongoing. Earlier, authorities deployed gas. Demonstrators oppose the ongoing ICE activity in the city.

 

Minneapolis shooting

Minnesota solicitor general sends letter to judge in lawsuit against Trump administration over Operation Metro Surge

In the state of Minnesota’s lawsuit against the Trump administration over Operation Metro Surge, Minnesota Solicitor General Liz Kramer and Minneapolis officials have sent a letter to U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez pleading with her to take action and provide the state with what they call the “urgent” emergency relief it needs.

“Plaintiffs, and Plaintiffs’ communities, are in urgent need of a Court-ordered respite to the irreparable injuries Defendants continue to cause to the health, safety, education, and welfare of Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and indeed the entire State of Minnesota,” Kramer and her colleagues write. “This cannot continue. We need the Court to act to stop this Surge before yet another resident dies because of Operation Metro Surge.”

They’re asking Menendez to “put the parties back in their positions before the Surge began and to immediately prevent even further irreparable harms to Plaintiffs’ ability to protect the public health, welfare, safety, and education. This will allow the Court—with the status quo duly preserved—to then examine the facts and the law in due course to consider more durable relief.”

“The record before the Court is more than sufficient to justify this immediate relief: Plaintiffs have demonstrated ongoing, irreparable harm and established serious constitutional claims,” the letter says. “Every day that passes without Court intervention compounds these injuries and undermines the very rights this Court is charged to protect.”

A hearing on Minnesota’s initial motion for relief was scheduled for Monday, well before today’s events transpired. That hearing is still on.

Live Updates: Federal Agents Shoot and Kill a Person in Minneapolis - The  New York Times

 

‘They’re going to kill some of us,’ protester says

Wearing a respirator, Savannah Thissen, 26, said she was out protesting tonight because, like Pretti, she is a healthcare worker.

“In my industry of love and service, 90% of my co workers and friends and family are immigrants, many of whom are nurses,” she said. “And today they have proven that they’re willing to execute health care workers, immigrants and innocent citizens all.”

“I have to be here,” she added. “I don’t know how I could be at home.”

Protester Savannah Thissen in Minneapolis on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026.

Savannah Thissen.Matt Lavietes

Thissen said that while there is a “sense of despair is creeping in” the city following its third officer-involved shooting this month, “it’s important that we don’t feed that doom.”

“They’re going to kill some of us. But if we don’t risk our safety now and here, they will just keep killing us,” she said. “If we don’t stand here now, despite the back to back murders and more, they will keep taking.”

Judge orders Trump administration officials to preserve evidence from shooting

A federal judge in Minnesota has blocked the Trump administration from “destroying or altering evidence” related to today’s fatal shooting of Pretti.

The ruling comes after Minnesota state officials filed a lawsuit in Minnesota’s U.S. District Court against officials with the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies seeking a temporary restraining order that would prohibit federal officials from destroying evidence.

Judge Eric Tostrud’s order includes any “evidence that Defendants and those working on their behalf removed from the scene and/or evidence that Defendants have taken into their exclusive custody,” it states.

The suit, filed by the state attorney general, includes the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension as plaintiffs and names among its defendants the leadership of several federal agencies, including the DHS.

The lawsuit alleges evidence was taken from the scene of today’s shooting, and it argues “Plaintiffs will suffer irreparable harm to their ability to investigate and enforce state criminal laws and protect the people of Minnesota” unless relief is granted.

“Our office has jurisdiction to review this matter for potential criminal conduct by the federal agents involved and we will do so,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.

The DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent late tonight.

A hearing is scheduled on the matter for Monday in Minnesota federal court.

Protester criticizes Trump administration’s characterization of killing

Standing at the site of where Pretti was shot, Rye Miller, 27, slammed the Trump administration’s characterization of his killing.

“Just watch the video,” she said. “There’s like, four or five different angles right now, every single angle that kept coming out today, it just looked worse and worse.”

Miller was holding a black flag, which she said represents “no surrender.”

“If you can be here, you need to be here,” she said. “And so that’s what I remember anytime some sort of hesitation comes up. That’s, that’s what I’ve been telling myself.”

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