Washington [US], January 26: The parents of a man killed by a federal officer in the US city of Minneapolis on Saturday have accused the Trump administration of "sickening lies" after a further death linked to immigration raids led tensions to boil over in Minnesota.
The man has been named as US citizen Alex Pretti, a white 37-year-old nurse who worked in a hospital for veterans. In a statement widely distributed in US media, his parents said Pretti was "clearly not holding a gun when attacked by [President Donald] Trump's murdering and cowardly ICE thugs." The incident is the latest involving the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, which has been accused of large-scale violations of civil rights in its effort to enforce the government's crackdown on immigrants.
It comes just two weeks after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot in her car by federal agents in the ame city, prompting demonstrations across the country after videos appeared to contradict authorities' claims that agents were in mortal danger during the incident.
Videos of the latest shooting have been circulating widely on social media. One verified by dpa shows several masked officers bringing a man violently down to the ground as he seeks to protect a woman before up to 10 shots ring out.
The parents' account contradicts the version offered by US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, who said officers were approached by a man "with a 9 millimetre semi-automatic handgun" during a raid.
Noem said that one of the officers fired their weapon after the individual "reacted violently." "Fearing for his life and for the lives of their fellow officers around him, an agent fired defensive shots," she said, as a photo of the weapon was shown on a screen next to her.
Michael and Susan Pretti, the deceased's parents, denounced what they called "the sickening lies told about our son by the administration" as "reprehensible and disgusting." "Please get the truth out about our son," they continued. "He was a good man."
Fresh protests broke out in Minneapolis following the shooting on Saturday, while dozens of people gathered with candles in a mixture of disbelief, anger and grief for a vigil in front of the deceased's home.
The latest incident is likely to further exacerbate tensions between the Trump administration and its opponents, with the president launching a tirade against the Democratic-led state leadership in Minnesota following the shooting.
"The Mayor and the Governor are inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric!" Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz urged Trump in a press conference to withdraw federal forces from the state. "Remove this force from Minnesota, they are sowing chaos and violence."
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, also a Democrat, posted on X: "How many more people need to die or get shot before this ends? President Trump, I am calling on you to put the American people and this American city first & get ICE out." At the national level, Democrats in the US Senate have threatened to block funding for the DHS to end the raids.
The ICE operations are part of the toughened deportation policy in Trump's second term, which started in January 2025.
Since the start of intensified operations in Minnesota, around 3,000 people have been arrested, according to the administration.
Several lawsuits by local authorities against the actions of federal agencies are currently pending in courts.
Source: Qatar Tribune
