The Albany Gazette - Second death in Minneapolis crackdown heaps pressure on Trump

Federal agents on Saturday morning shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, while scuffling with him on an icy roadway, less than three weeks after an immigration officer fired on Renee Good, also 37, killing her in her car.

The Trump administration quickly claimed that Pretti had intended to harm the federal agents -- as it did after Good's death -- pointing to a pistol it 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 around 10 shots at him seconds after he was sprayed in the face with chemical irritant and thrown to the ground.

After top officials described Pretti as an "assassin" who had violently "attacked" the agents, Pretti's parents issued a statement on Saturday condemning the Trump administration's "sickening lies" about their son.

Asked Sunday what she would say to Pretti's parents, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said: "Just that I'm grieved for them."

"I truly am. I can't even imagine losing a child," she told Fox News's "The Sunday Briefing."

While continuing to defend the agents' actions, her tone was markedly different from a day earlier, when she repeatedly told a briefing that Pretti had attacked law enforcement and "was there to perpetuate violence."

She said Sunday that more clarity would come as an investigation into the incident continues.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, speaking to NBC's "Meet the Press," also said 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."

- 'Joint' probe -

Their comments came after multiple senators from US President Donald Trump's Republican Party called for a thorough probe into the killing, and for cooperation with local authorities in the investigation.

"There must be a full joint federal and state investigation," Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said.

The Trump administration controversially excluded local investigators from a probe into Good's killing.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, on Saturday said that the "federal government cannot be trusted to lead this investigation. The state will handle it, period."

The Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee requested that top officials testify at public hearings.

Thousands of federal immigration agents have been deployed to heavily Democratic Minneapolis for weeks, after conservative media reported on alleged fraud by Somali immigrants -- racially tinged accusations that Trump has repeatedly amplified.

The Midwestern city, known for its bitterly cold winters, has one of the highest concentrations of Somali immigrants in the country.

- Court order -

Since the beginning of "Operation Metro Surge," many residents have begun carrying whistles to notify others of the presence of immigration agents, while sometimes violent skirmishes have broken out between the officers and protesters.

Following the latest killing, local officials reiterated their call for the agents to leave.

"Minnesota believes in law and order. We believe in peace. And we believe that Trump needs to pull his 3,000 untrained agents out of Minnesota before they kill another American in the street," Walz wrote Sunday on X.

Local authorities have sued the federal government seeking a court order to suspend the operation, with a first hearing set for Monday.

On Sunday, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration not to destroy or alter any evidence from the Pretti killing.

(F.Allen--TAG)