Conflicting accounts have emerged after 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti was fatally shot by a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis on Jan. 24 amid protests tied to a federal immigration enforcement crackdown. Family, friends and colleagues say Pretti was a compassionate caregiver with no serious criminal history who was documenting and protesting enforcement actions when he was shot. Federal officials claim he approached officers with a firearm and resisted disarmament, calling him a threat. The incident has sparked outrage, protests, political recrimination and calls for accountability.
#AlexPretti #MinneapolisShooting #BorderPatrolShooting #FederalAgentShootsMan #USImmigrationEnforcement #ICECrackdown #MinnesotaProtests #DHSNoem #TimWalz #ICUNurseKilled #BorderPatrol #MinneapolisNews #USBreakingNews #PrettiKilled #ImmigrationRaidClash #ProtestersVsFeds
~HT.318~ED.102~
#AlexPretti #MinneapolisShooting #BorderPatrolShooting #FederalAgentShootsMan #USImmigrationEnforcement #ICECrackdown #MinnesotaProtests #DHSNoem #TimWalz #ICUNurseKilled #BorderPatrol #MinneapolisNews #USBreakingNews #PrettiKilled #ImmigrationRaidClash #ProtestersVsFeds
~HT.318~ED.102~
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you all for being here. I'll have a short statement, then I'll turn it over to Department of Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson to update the situation, joined here by Hennepin County Sheriff Witt, State Patrol Colonel, and General Minkie, the Adjutant General of the Minnesota National Guard.
00:22Well, as I said last week, this federal occupation of Minnesota long ago stopped being a matter of immigration enforcement. It's a campaign of organized brutality against the people of our state, and today that campaign claimed another life.
00:36I've seen the videos from several angles, and it's sickening. But I have a strong statement here for our federal government. Minnesota's justice system will have the last word on this. It must have the last word.
00:55As I told the White House in no uncertain terms this morning, the federal government cannot be trusted to lead this investigation. The state will handle it, period.
01:04Let me say something else, and this is critically important.
01:07All of us understand what happened this morning and the tragedy of, and my deepest sympathies to the family of a 37-year-old Minnesota resident, a lawful firearm concealed permit carrier, something that I've been lectured to by Republicans for decades.
01:28That it is not only your right, it's your duty.
01:36We know that the potential to further inflame tensions is high. And to Minnesotans, there's a difference.
01:44We want calm and peace and normalcy back to our lives. They want chaos.
01:50We cannot, and we will not, give them what they want by meeting violence with violence.
01:58Minnesota and our local law enforcement, as you have seen, have done everything possible to de-escalate.
02:05Local media has reported extensively on the cooperation to de-escalate this situation.
02:13Donald Trump, I call on you once again. Remove this force from Minnesota.
02:20They are sowing chaos and violence. We've seen deadly violence from federal agents again and again and again.
02:28But in contrast to that on these frozen streets, what you witnessed yesterday was the best of Minnesotans, peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights.
02:36And I attended in the church basement hundreds of Minnesotans from all faith packing care packages for families that have been ripped apart.
02:48Despite the horrific acts by this federal government, Minnesotans are standing up for the rule of law.
02:53They're protesting loudly and urgently, but peacefully. It must stay that way, Minnesota.
02:59Minnesotans are witnessing, and we're creating a log of evidence for the future prosecution of ICE agents and officials responsible for this.
03:08They're helping their neighbors. They're walking their kids to school. They're feeding families.
03:13I salute their courage and their restraint. And I call on all Americans to see the decency that this state is exhibiting and the horrific, cruelty, unprofessional, absolute abomination that is passing for what these ICE agents are doing on our streets.
03:32They think they can provoke us into abandoning our values. Well, they're dead wrong.
03:37We'll keep the peace. We'll secure the justice with our neighbors, and we'll see this occupation ends.
03:43Minnesotans and Minnesota law enforcement that continuously is being denigrated by this administration will continue to be the adults in the room, the professionals in the room, the decent human beings in the room that will keep the peace.
03:58With this, I'd like to turn it over to Department of Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson to update you on the situation as we know it.
04:05Thank you, Governor.
04:11I'm Bob Jacobson, Commissioner of Public Safety for the Department of Public Safety, and again, it's my honor to serve in that position.
04:19A man was shot and killed this morning in Minneapolis.
04:26I want to pause and remember what cannot get lost in this moment.
04:31A man died.
04:33His family and friends are feeling unimaginable heartbreak and trauma,
04:39and I know Minnesotans and I know our community will rally around this man's family and friends to support him.
04:46I also understand clearly that people are upset.
04:51They're scared.
04:53They're confused.
04:54And I want to assure you that this state's public safety officials and our local law enforcement partners are doing everything in our power to get answers,
05:05to help return a sense of normalcy back to our communities.
05:11You have the right to demonstrate peacefully.
05:14We recognize that demonstrations are often driven by strong emotions, beliefs, and a desire to be heard.
05:22But please, please remain peaceful.
05:27I want to say it again because it is important and it is critical.
05:34Peacefully demonstrate.
05:37By doing so, you help local authorities to get answers.
05:41You help us to do our investigations.
05:45By remaining peaceful, you help ensure nobody else may be killed or injured.
05:51The thousands and thousands of people who gathered yesterday in Minneapolis prove that Minnesotans can make their voices heard peacefully,
06:01and they can do so without violence, and they can do so without destruction.
06:06State resources are available and ready to support our local law enforcement partners as requested.
06:13And those resources include the Minnesota State Patrol, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and the Minnesota National Guard.
06:21With that, we'll stand for questions.
06:23I'm Kendrell with Care 11.
06:25Governor, you made this request before.
06:28Is there any reason to leave that you will be answered differently?
06:31Have you had any conversations with the president, with the federal government,
06:35and is there any indication that they are going to pull out or back out?
06:40Well, I spoke twice this morning, shortly after I received the call of this shooting.
06:45I spoke with the president's chief of staff, and the first request was to get her people out of there,
06:53to get these federal agents out of there if they were going to cause more chaos.
06:57And the second call is, with no uncertain terms, that we will investigate this.
07:03We will not be stonewalled.
07:04What we've already seen, and you saw it this morning, before any investigation is done,
07:09you have the most powerful people in the federal government spinning stories,
07:15and putting up pictures, and unrelated people who we don't know anything about,
07:21and a picture of a firearm, to try and spin a narrative.
07:26And I just, I ask Americans, this will end when enough Americans say this will end.
07:32Do I have any confidence Donald Trump will do the right thing?
07:35No, I don't have a lot of confidence Donald Trump will do the right thing.
07:38I do have a lot of confidence that the majority of the American people will do the right thing.
07:42And I think there cannot be very many people across this country looking right now,
07:47after all the reporting that's been done, after everything that's been said,
07:51under the pretense that they are here about immigration reform,
07:54and quit referring to these people as law enforcement.
07:56They are not law enforcement.
07:58We have law enforcement who do an incredible job.
08:01And to listen to Greg Bovino denigrate the work of our people who are out there cleaning up their mess,
08:07no, I don't have a lot of confidence that he himself will do it.
08:10But here's what I do have confidence in.
08:12There's a whole lot of Republicans, for whatever reason, cannot find their spine.
08:16But they might find the ability to know that they're not going to win another election
08:20as long as they live, unless they stand up for what's right,
08:23and stand up for the rule of law, and stand up for human decency.
08:26And that's the moment.
08:27So then, just a follow-up, because then, if that is not the case,
08:31what are the people of Minnesota supposed to do who are in the middle right now,
08:36because if they do a stone wall, and you're trying to investigate, is that forcing them to do it?
08:42Yeah, no, it's a good question.
08:43And look, I'm speaking to the people of Minnesota right now.
08:46I hear that scream from you, and I'll continue to plead and ask you for peace.
08:52And I know the answer is, you ask us for peace, and we give it,
08:56and we get shot in the face on the streets coming out of a donut shop.
08:59We cannot give them what they want.
09:03I don't know how to say this in so many terms to watch the madness that we've witnessed over this last week
09:10coming out of the White House and what it's doing here.
09:12My confidence is, and I say it to Minnesotans, as I've said, exercise your First Amendment rights.
09:19Speak out. Bear witness and document legally.
09:22But I understand the risk in that.
09:25And I understand the courage that it takes to have people out there doing this.
09:29Thank God. Thank God we have video.
09:33Because according to DHS, these seven heroic guys took an onslaught of a battalion against them or something.
09:41It's nonsense, people. It is nonsense, and it's lies.
09:45So my confidence is this, Minnesotans.
09:48You know who you are, and you demonstrate it every single day, and we damn sure know who these people are.
09:55The American public knows, and this needs to be the event that says enough.
10:00Go ahead. No, I'm up front.
10:03The question was related to whether or not the BCA is on the ground currently with the investigation.
10:21Do you have officers on the ground doing the investigation right now?
10:26The question was related to whether or not the BCA is on the ground currently with the investigation,
10:32and a reference to previous investigations that the BCA have attempted to be a part of.
10:38What I'll tell you right now is that we no longer have BCA agents for Public Safety State Patrol
10:43or Minneapolis on the ground at that crime scene.
10:45Was that an instruction by the federal government, or did you pull your agents out?
10:50What I will tell you, and not to get further into the investigation, but DHS pulled out of the scene,
10:56leaving that to Minnesota State Patrol in Minneapolis.
11:00We did not have enough resources to be able to hold that ground safely, and we had to leave that scene
11:06because of the number of people that were available and the safety of those in the public and the safety of our teams.
11:13We were able to get there, but at that time we were not able to hold that scene to do a crime scene investigation.
11:19I can't talk any more about those details.
11:21But who is handling the investigation, if not either DHS nor state officials right now?
11:29We'll have more on that, but the BCA is engaged and involved, and we are working at the request of the Minneapolis Police Department on the scene in this investigation.
11:41So we are there, we're available.
11:43We want to make sure that we continue to work on this and engage with our federal law enforcement.
11:49But at this point we don't have anything more to share about the crime scene.
11:54Again, we were not able to hold it.
11:55We wanted to make sure and keep people safe, but federal law enforcement left the scene and left us there.
12:03Governor, have you activated the National Guard?
12:07I know that the service was requested for additional assistance.
12:11Can you tell us whether they're going to be playing the role?
12:13Yeah.
12:14Yes, the answer is yes, we have.
12:16As we said last week, and we staged those troops.
12:19I'll have General Menke talk about where they're at and, again, use this as an opportunity to stress to Minnesotans.
12:26The frustration you have, and as you saw this, they killed a man, created chaos, pushed down protesters, threw gas indiscriminately, and then left the scene, and then we're left to clean up.
12:40I understand the anger.
12:41I understand trying to parse who were the law enforcement on the scene when you got there after a man was killed is difficult for the folks who are out there.
12:48But I can't stress enough, our goal, and I'll have General Menke talk about what the role of these Guard troops are in conjunction with incredible work from the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, from Mutual Aid Across, and, of course, the State Patrol, of trying to get to the point where what we're saying is we can handle this, and Minnesotans can express their First Amendment rights, and have our folks on the streets, and get these people out of here.
13:14And so, John, if you want to talk a little bit, but the answer is yes, there's activated.
13:18He can talk to you about numbers.
13:19So the question is, what's the National Guard doing right now?
13:27So we have been on state active duty for over a week, so we've had soldiers prepared in the metro area to respond in a much rapid manner than if they were not mobilized.
13:40So we have a request from the Hennepin County Sheriff to support them, and that is to help them free up additional resources for other work that they need to do.
13:48And we have started coordinating with them this morning on that, and that first area of support will be assisting them with their requirement to provide security to the Whipple Building.
14:02So we'll be helping them there, and then we are in parallel planning with other organizations within the state of Minnesota to include the State Patrol, the Minnesota DNR, and other local agencies to render assistance if requested.
14:15Could you say how many are now employed?
14:18I would say that the number that we have is adequate for the requests that we have right now, and I will also tell you that we are bringing more resources that will be able to respond in a timely manner that are not fully mobilized yet, but we are mobilizing more soldiers as we talk at this time.
14:35I'd like not to get in the specific numbers for an operational security standpoint, but right now we have all the resources to meet the requests that we have.
14:43I would note on this one, too, that we'll be billing the federal government for the cost of the National Guard because they are incurring the costs that are falling on us by their reckless actions.
14:53Yes, sir.
14:54I'm rejecting the rush to judgment within 15 minutes of this, which they did last time, that that's why you need to have a fair investigation, and that's why a video can show one thing, but what happened beforehand?
15:12But they already will slander this individual. They've already made this the case, and I will just say you will all start to see it, and some of you probably have. There's multiple angles of this, and I'll go back to what we talked about before.
15:34They're telling you not to trust your eyes and ears, not to trust the facts that you're seeing in front of them, and at some point in time, you're reporting, and I think the reporting this week has been spectacular across Minnesota, that there's not two sides to every story, but in this situation, what I'm saying is we need to have a fair investigation understanding what's happening and held accountable.
15:57We continue to hear, and we heard it from the vice president, that these folks can do whatever they want. They can have full immunity, and what I'm telling you is they will not. There will be justice to Minnesotans. Continue to gather the information, so I won't say where it is because I think it's irresponsible to make that judgment, but what I see with my eyes and what you're going to see with your eyes makes that pretty hard to believe, and I would imagine as a federal officer, they would have come out and sounded like these professionals sound,
16:27and say we need to gather the information, we need to gather all the facts, we need to put them forward, and then we can make some informed decision based on the facts.
16:34They've written the narrative already, and the audacity to critique the police chief of Minneapolis after what work that those heroic officers are trying to do, and to be critiqued by this guy, I mean, I don't know, I've said it a lot, but America, as you're listening, enough is enough.
16:54Enough is enough of this. End this. End this. And we see them moving to Maine. If you're in Boston, you're in Chicago, you're in Philly, you're in Miami, it doesn't matter.
17:04We can't live like this. Our children are in trauma. A five-year-old, you saw the picture, the bunny hat, and the Spider-Man.
17:13These are not like some narrative to throw around, to parade around in some coat you had made and act like you're a tough guy or whatever. These are people's lives, and we have rule of law.
17:22So I'll let the investigation play itself out. We will do our best to find it, but I don't know. You kill a man, and then you just leave your law enforcement, just leaving him.
17:31Is there a single case in American history where you just, like, walk away and say, I guess that just happened, and we're not going to clean up our mess?
17:39I'm proud of Minnesotans. I'm proud of law enforcement here and our partners, and we'll get to the bottom of it. I think we have time for another one. So, yes, ma'am.
17:47I'm better off to let these guys, the professionals. I have my thoughts.
18:07So the question was, what are we doing to assist federal law enforcement on getting violent criminals off the street, if I understand the question?
18:15Greg William said that in the press conference, he was calling on state and local law enforcement, so what would he respond to that?
18:21State and local law enforcement are always ready and willing and able to arrest violent offenders.
18:30We do not stand down from that, no matter where we get that information from.
18:34If there are violent offenders or violent criminals or violent crimes, we will investigate and we'll bring those to justice.
18:41If the federal government would like to work with us, to continue to work with us as they have in the past to locate those violent offenders,
18:48we are always open to those discussions and always willing to assist.
18:54We do not ignore that. We are ready and able, and we do do that.
18:58All of you as part of the media hear us arresting violent offenders all the time.
19:03We have not stood down. That is our mission. The federal government is not alone in arresting violent offenders.
19:12State and local law enforcement does that every day at great risk to their life, at great risk to the community.
19:20We do it because we want to save Minnesota, and the federal government is not the only one to do that.
19:26All of our news and we do that. Thank you, thank you.
Comments