The family of a 37-year-old US citizen shot dead by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis have lashed out at “sickening lies told about our son by the [Trump] administration”.
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Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse, was sprayed with irritants before being shot at least 10 times in just five seconds on Friday.
In a statement, Mr Pretti’s family said the nurse, who cared for US veterans at the Minneapolis VA hospital, was a “kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends”.
They added: “The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs.”
Instead, they say both his hands were visible and that he had been trying to protect a woman who had been pushed by federal officers.
However, those claims have been contested by key figures of President Trump’s administration.
Hundreds of demonstrators have gathered for a vigil despite freezing conditions in Minneapolis after the shooting.
Tension had already been riding high in Minneapolis over the presence of immigration and customs officers following the fatal shooting of Renee Good in the city weeks earlier.
After the shooting of Mr Pretti, an angry crowd gathered and protesters clashed with federal immigration officers, who wielded batons and deployed flash bangs.
Information about what led up to the shooting was limited, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said – but politicians and officials are already visibly polarised over this latest incident.
The Minnesota National Guard was assisting local police at the direction of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, officials said.
Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey has asked for National Guard troops to work with police, but has said they will wear reflective vests to “distinguish them from other agencies”.
Governor Walz called on Mr Trump to “pull the thousands of violent, untrained officers out of Minnesota. Now”.
“Minnesota has had it,” he added and described the situation as “sickening”.
However, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Mr Pretti was carrying a semi-automatic handgun and two magazines of ammunition, and implied he “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement”.
In bystander videos of the shooting that emerged soon after, Mr Pretti is seen with a phone in his hand, but no footage appears to show him holding a visible weapon.
Mr O’Hara said police believe the man was a “lawful gun owner with a permit to carry”.
Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino said at a news conference that federal law enforcement had been under “constant attack” in Minneapolis for weeks.
In an X post that was reposted by Mr Trump, DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin claimed that a protester in Minneapolis had allegedly “bit off” an officer’s finger.
The post included graphic images of what appear to be the bloody wound.
Attorney general Pam Bondi said a suspect had been arrested and was in custody over the incident.
Mr Trump also shared an image on social media of the gun immigration officials said was recovered and described Mr Pretti as a gunman.
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Writing online, he said: “This is the gunman’s gun, loaded (with two additional full magazines!), and ready to go – What is that all about?”.
DHS secretary Kristi Noem also questioned why Mr Pretti was armed in a news conference but did not say that he had drawn his weapon or brandished it at officers.
Robert Alver, who worked with Mr Pretti in a university science lab almost 17 years ago, described him as “everything you would want in a colleague and a friend”.
Fighting back tears, Mr Alver criticised Ms Noem’s comments, saying: “There is no way on God’s green Earth that he would ever be going anywhere to hurt somebody. He would had to have had a complete personality transplant.”
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Mr Trump has accused the city’s Democratic governor and mayor of “inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric”.
Mr Pretti was shot just over a mile from where an immigration federal officer shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good on 7 January, an incident which sparked widespread protests.
