Minneapolis shooting: parents of Alex Pretti say Trump officials are telling ‘sickening lies’

Key events24m agoOpening summaryShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureA senior Republic senator has said the credibility of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security are in the balance after what happened in Minneapolis and has called for a full inquiry.Louisiana’s Bill Cassidy posted on X: The events in Minneapolis are incredibly disturbing. The credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake. There must be a full joint federal and state investigation. We can trust the American people with the truth. Further to the last post, fellow actress Natalie Portman got emotional as she described her feelings over a “horrible day”.“What is happening in our country is just obscene,” she said in Park City, where she was promoting the film The Gallerist. What Trump and [homeland security secretary) Kristi Noem and ICE are doing to our citizens and to undocumented people is outrageous and needs to end. Hollywood stars have used red carpet appearances at the Sundance film festival to denounce the killing of American Alex Pretti after his fatal shooting by federal agents in Minneapolis.Actor and director Olivia Wilde, who was in Park City, Utah, for the premiere of The Invite, said on Saturday that the death of a second protester in just three weeks at the hands of federal agents was “unfathomable”, Agence France-Presse is reporting.“I can’t believe that we’re watching people get murdered in the street,” she said. These brave Americans who have stepped out to protest the injustice of these ICE quote/unquote ‘officers,’ and watching them be murdered – it’s unfathomable. We cannot normalize it. Olivia Wilde speaking at Sundance on Saturday. Photograph: Chris Pizzello/Invision/APWilde, who wore an “ICE OUT” badge, said the US government violence against people exercising their right to free expression was “un-American”. We may have a government that is somehow trying to make excuses for it and legitimize it, but we [Americans] don’t. Opening summaryWelcome to our live coverage of the outcry across the US following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old American citizen Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday, the second such killing there in less than three weeks.Pretti’s family released a statement on Saturday evening in which they said they were “heartbroken but also very angry” after Donald Trump and his officials referred to Pretti as a “gunman” who had approached US border patrol officers.“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. 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 family statement said. “Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man.”Two witnesses to the killing have said in sworn testimony that the intensive care nurse was not brandishing a weapon when he approached federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday. One witness, who filmed the shooting from right behind Pretti, said federal agents tackled him after he came to help someone whom they had pushed to the ground.People gather during a vigil for Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Photograph: Adam Gray/APFootage from the scene supports the assertion that Pretti is holding a phone, not a gun, when he was tackled and shot.In the aftermath of the killing, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released an image of a handgun, which Donald Trump referred to as “the gunman’s gun” in a social media post. Kristi Noem, the DHS secretary, said at a briefing that Pretti had “approached US border patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun”. Greg Bovino, a senior border patrol commander, said: “This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”Here are some of the latest developments: Minnesota federal judge Eric Tostrud ordered federal agencies to preserve evidence related to Pretti’s death. Tostrud’s ruling marked a response to Minnesota officials’ lawsuit on Saturday alleging that federal officials were stymying investigative efforts. Thousands of protesters gathered in cities including Minneapolis, New York City, San Francisco, Boston and Providence, Rhode Island. They braved extreme cold to shout slogans including: “Say it once, say it twice, we will not put up with ICE!” The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, said his party would block a funding package next week if it included money for the DHS, the department responsible for ICE. “What’s happening in Minnesota is appalling – and unacceptable in any American city,” the New York senator said. “Democrats sought common sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, but because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE. I will vote no.”