Just last week in Minneapolis, 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti was shot and killed by federal I.C.E. agents at around 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 24. Although the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) labeled Pretti as the aggressor, describing him as armed and approaching the agents with the intention of “massacring” them, video footage of the scene seems to contradict those statements.
The video clearly shows Mr. Pretti filming the detainment of someone in the middle of the street while two other civilians were speaking to the agents. He begins walking toward the scene when the federal agent shoves the civilians, pushing them towards a white SUV. Pretti puts himself between the civilians and the agent, to which the I.C.E. agent responds by spraying him with pepper spray. The video shows Pretti holding his phone in one hand and shielding his face with the other. Alex Pretti is then grabbed and pinned to the ground by several agents. A gun is quickly removed from near Pretti’s right hip as another agent points his firearm at Pretti’s back. Then, while restrained and on his knees, an agent fires one shot from close range, followed by three more. Six more shots are fired while Pretti lays motionless on the ground.
Several public figures such as Gov. Tim Walz and Chief Brian O’Hara of the Minneapolis Police Department have spoken out against federal officials’ claims that Alex Pretti was a dangerous threat, stating Pretti broke no laws and had no criminal record. Minnesota law states that citizens can legally carry a handgun in public if they have a permit, a law Pretti abided by.
Alex Pretti is the second person to be shot and killed by federal agents in Minnesota in recent weeks, closely following the death of Renee Good earlier this month. Both deaths have sparked nationwide calls for justice and large Anti-I.C.E. protests.
Another encounter in Minneapolis this month occurred on January 14, 2026, during which a Venezuelan man named Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis was shot in the leg by a federal ICE agent during an altercation following a traffic stop. The DHS stated the man resisted his arrest, assaulted the agent with a shovel, and was shot in the leg during the struggle. However, Sosa-Celis and his co-defendant deny assaulting the officer. According to reports from Associated Press and Vera Institute, video evidence and several eyewitnesses have also disputed the official narrative. Both incidents were characterized as “defensive” by the department.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security have faced significant accusations from critics including legal experts, civil rights groups, and local governments for allegedly manipulating public narratives in order to justify aggressive enforcement. Several examples re-enforcing these allegations include the claims that Renee Good attempted to run over an I.C.E. agent, when the video clearly shows her putting her car in reverse to drive away, and the labeling of Pretti as a “domestic terrorist” who intended to “massacre law enforcement,” when in reality, video footage proves he was holding only his cell phone, not a weapon, while attempting to assist a woman being physically assaulted by I.C.E. agents.
Although initially defensive in his response to the incidents, President Trump and Vice President JD Vance have acknowledged both deaths as “tragic” since public pressure has increased. Trump described the shootings as “terrible” in an interview with Fox News, and Stephen Miller went back on his claim that Pretti was a “would-be assassin” (NPR) and admitted that the agents “may not have been following protocol.”
These repeated violent demonstrations made by I.C.E. just this month have led Anti-I.C.E. activists to call for a nationwide shutdown on January 30 to protest immigration enforcement tactics and bring justice for Renee Good, Alex Pretti, Keith Porter, and the numerous others who have been killed or detained by I.C.E. According to an article by Newsweek, the National Shutdown campaign is calling for the nation to abstain from work, school, and commerce on Friday, urging people to stop funding ICE and stand together against the agency’s terrorization of communities everywhere.
