Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz, has demanded that US President Donald Trump pull “untrained” federal immigration agents out of the state after Border Patrol agents shot and killed a demonstrator in Minneapolis, the second such death in the city amid the ongoing crackdown.
As calls for an independent investigation into the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, grow, Walz posed a question directly to Trump during a news briefing on Sunday.
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“What’s the plan, Donald Trump?” he asked, adding, “What do we need to do to get these federal agents out of our state?”
The questions came after senior Trump administration officials defended Pretti’s killing, despite graphic video evidence appearing to contradict their accounts.
Federal agents shot and killed Pretti on Saturday while scuffling with him on an icy roadway in Minneapolis, less than three weeks after an immigration officer fired on Renee Good, also 37, killing her in her car.
Trump’s administration claimed that Pretti had intended to harm the agents, as it did after Good’s death, pointing to a pistol it said was discovered on him.
However, videos shared widely on social media and verified by US media showed Pretti never drawing a weapon, with agents firing about 10 shots at him seconds after he was sprayed in the face with a chemical irritant and thrown to the ground.
The videos further inflamed the ongoing protests in Minneapolis against the presence of federal immigration agents, with about 1,000 people participating in a demonstration on Sunday.
“The victims are border patrol agents,” Gregory Bovino, Border Patrol commander-at-large, told CNN’s State of the Union programme.
This official line, echoed by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other members of the Trump administration on Sunday, led to outrage among local law enforcement, many Minneapolis residents and Democrats on Capitol Hill.
Democratic strategist Arshad Hasan said Pretti’s killing and its aftermath were “deeply unsettling” and accused federal agents of turning a low‑crime city into an “occupation”.
“I don’t know why a government agency should get particular exemptions from due process when somebody is murdered… Homicide is a crime for which the state and local law enforcement have jurisdiction,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that the community was “grieving” and feeling “under siege”.
Holding a phone, not a gun
Videos from the scene show Pretti holding a phone in his hand, not a gun, as he tries to help other protesters who had been pushed to the ground by agents.
As one video begins, Pretti can be seen filming while a federal agent pushes away one woman and shoves another woman to the ground. Pretti moves between the agent and the women, then raises his left arm to shield himself as the agent pepper-sprays him.
Several agents then take hold of Pretti – who struggles with them – and force him onto his hands and knees. As the agents pin Pretti down, someone shouts what sounds like a warning about the presence of a gun.
Video footage then appears to show one of the agents removing a gun from Pretti and stepping away from the group with it.
Moments later, an officer with a handgun points at Pretti’s back and fires four shots in quick succession. Several more shots can then be heard as another agent appears to fire at Pretti.
Darius Reeves, the former head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) field office in Baltimore, told the Reuters news agency that federal agents’ apparent lack of communication was troubling. “It’s clear no one is communicating… based on my observation of how that team responded,” Reeves said.
He drew attention to signs that an officer appeared to have taken possession of Pretti’s weapon before he was killed. “The proof to me is how everyone scatters,” he said. “They are looking around, trying to figure out where the shots came from.”
After top federal officials described Pretti as an “assassin” who had assaulted the agents, Pretti’s parents issued a statement on Saturday, condemning the Trump administration’s “sickening lies” about their son.
US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press programme, said that an investigation was necessary to get a full understanding of the killing.
Asked if agents had already removed the pistol from Pretti when they fired on him, Blanche said, “I do not know. And nobody else knows, either. That’s why we’re doing an investigation.”
Multiple senators from Trump’s Republican Party called for a thorough probe into the killing and for cooperation with local authorities. “There must be a full joint federal and state investigation,” Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said.
Thousands of federal immigration agents have been deployed to heavily Democratic Minneapolis for weeks, after conservative media reported on alleged fraud by Somali immigrants.
Trump has repeatedly amplified the racially tinged accusations, including on Sunday, when he posted on his Truth Social platform: “Minnesota is a Criminal COVER UP of the massive Financial Fraud that has gone on!”
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. “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,” he said.
