Call for calm after man shot and killed during Minneapolis immigration crackdown

Federal immigration officers deploy pepper spray at protesters after a shooting Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Tensions boiled over in the US state of Minnesota Saturday, as the governor hit out at the “sickening” acts of federal officials following the second fatal shooting in the city of Minneapolis this month.

An irate Tim Walz told US President Donald Trump to remove his federal agents including the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from the state as citizens took to the streets to protest the latest deadly shooting, just a few weeks on from the killing of mother-of-three Renee Good by an ICE agent.

“Remove this force from Minnesota,” he told Mr Trump at a press conference on Saturday afternoon. 

They are sowing chaos and violence. I call on Americans to see the cruelty of what ICE is doing on our streets.” 

 He also called for calm from residents of the beleaguered city while describing the Trump administration’s account of the shooting as “nonsense and lies”.

“You ask for peace, we give it – and we get shot in the face on the streets,” Mr Walz said. 

“We want calm and peace and normalcy back to our lives. They want chaos.” 

He added that he wanted local law enforcement to investigate the shooting, following clashes over the investigation into the Renee Good shooting.

This undated photo provided by Michael Pretti shows Alex J. Pretti, the man who was shot by federal officers in Minneapolis on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. Picture: Michael Pretti via AP

A video circulating online on Saturday morning, which matches the reported location of the shooting mentioned by the officials, shows a man being wrestled to the ground by several law enforcement officers before being shot what appears to be several times.

At least two officers can be seen with their weapons drawn.

A second, more comprehensive video of the shooting, obtained and posted online by Drop Site News, shows that the man who was shot appeared to come to the defense of an observer who was shoved to the ground by a federal officer.

That officer then sprayed the man with a chemical agent, repeatedly, before tackling him to the street along with other agents.

As at least five agents surrounded the man on the ground, one appeared to fire a shot at him at close range, followed by a volley of 10 more shots.

Officials later confirmed that a 37-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene. The Minnesota Star Tribune reported that the man was an American citizen named Alex Jeffrey Pretti, according to sources familiar with the incident.

The incident comes two months into a large-scale federal operation in the US state that is targeting immigrants. There has been a significant public backlash to the indiscriminate nature of the actions of ICE agents and the racial profiling they are engaged in.

Federal immigration officers deploy tear gas after a shooting in Minneapolis, on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. Picture: AP Photo/Abbie Parr

Workplaces and schools have been shut, as people of colour stay at home from fear of being targeted by ICE. This latest shooting is the third such incident this month, but other incidents have caused outrage such as the detention of a five-year-old whom his school described as being used “as bait” in a bid to detain other members of his family.

Locals who spoke to the Irish Examiner this week expressed fears that events like Saturday's shooting feel inevitable as long as ICE remains in Minneapolis.

A general strike organised on Friday saw tens of thousands take to the streets in downtown Minneapolis calling for ICE to leave their city, which has a lower proportion of immigrants compared to the populations of other cities.

Greg Bovino, commander of the federal border patrol agency, said that this morning federal immigration officers tried to apprehend a person they were targeting for immigration enforcement and, at that time, the officers were approached by a man with a gun.

He said that officers tried to disarm the man but he ended up shot dead, in a defensive action. He added the officer who killed the man has eight years of experience in the job and “extensive training”.

Federal immigration officers deploy tear gas at protesters after a shooting Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Minneapolis. Picture: AP Photo/Abbie Parr

Federal officials also distributed a photo of a handgun they said was on the person who was shot.

US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, hit out at local elected officials included Mr Walz and the Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and made reference to a multi-billion dollar fraud scandal of federal money that involved some Somali immigrants. Mr Trump has consistently cited this incident when talking about the immigration crackdown in Minnesota.

“LET OUR ICE PATRIOTS DO THEIR JOB,” he said on his Truth Social platform. “12,000 Illegal Alien Criminals, many of them violent, have been arrested and taken out of Minnesota. If they were still there, you would see something far worse than you are witnessing today!” 

He also accused the state officials of "inciting insurrection".