Minneapolis shooting witnesses, victim’s family reject US administration's ‘lies’ about killing

Eyewitnesses to a recent fatal shooting in the US city of Minneapolis and the family of the victim have challenged the federal account of the incident, saying the government is spreading “lies” about what happened.

On Saturday, US law enforcement officers killed 37-year-old American citizen Alex Pretti, a registered nurse working in the intensive care unit at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, which serves veterans.

It was the second fatal shooting this month involving federal agents in Minneapolis during the aggressive immigration crackdown by the administration of US President Donald Trump.

After the incident, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released an image of a firearm, which Trump claimed was “the gunman’s gun” in a social media post.

The victim had two magazines of ammunition and no ID, the DHS further alleged. Border Patrol officers attempted to disarm the armed man who had approached them, and an agent fired defensive shots when he “violently resisted.”

Meanwhile, Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino claimed that the victim was trying “to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”

Other US officials labeled Pretti a “domestic terrorist,” without providing any evidence.

‘Another horrific shooting’: ICE agents kill man during immigration crackdown in Minneapolis

Minnesota Governor has strongly condemned “another horrific shooting” incident by US federal agents during immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis, calling for the withdrawal of “violent” officers from the city.

Pretti’s parents, however, denounced the Trump administration’s “sickening lies” about their son and rejected its account of how the shooting unfolded.

They said in a statement that videos showed their son was not holding a gun when he was tackled by federal agents. Instead, they added, Alex was holding his phone with one hand and using the other to shield a woman who was being pepper-sprayed.

“Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) thugs. He has his phone in his right hand, and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down, all while being pepper-sprayed,” the statement read.

Pretti’s father told The Associated Press that his son had participated in protests following the killing of Renee Good, a mother of three, by a federal officer in Minneapolis on January 7.

He also described his son as someone who “cared about people deeply, and he was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the United States with ICE, as millions of other people are upset.”

Minnesota Senator Tina Smith condemned federal agents after the killing of the Minneapolis nurse.

An unnamed witness to Saturday’s shooting said Pretti was shot after trying to help a woman who had been pepper-sprayed, noting that he did not resist or reach for a gun.

“I have read the statement from DHS about what happened, and it is wrong. The man did not approach the agents with a gun. He approached them with a camera,” the witness emphasized.

“I didn’t see him touch any of them–he wasn’t even turned toward them. It didn’t look like he was trying to resist, just trying to help the woman up. I didn’t see him with a gun.”

Dmitri Drekonja, who worked with Pretti, said, “to those of us who know him, it's galling and enraging” to hear the way officials are portraying Pretti.

“I don't understand how you can put a label on someone like that without talking to anyone who knew him. ... They seem to be dropping that out there out of absolutely nothing,” Drekonja added.

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