US officials clash over immigration crackdown after Minneapolis shooting

In duelling news conferences, US federal and state officials offered starkly different messages about the immigration crackdown that has swept across Minneapolis and surrounding cities, with both claiming the moral high ground in the wake of another shooting death.

“Which side do you want to be on?” governor Tim Walz asked the public.

“The side of an all-powerful federal government that could kill, injure, menace and kidnap its citizens off the streets, or on the side of a nurse at the VA hospital who died bearing witness to such government,” a reference to the shooting of Alex Pretti on Saturday in Minneapolis.

At the same time, in an office building about 20 miles away, border patrol commander Gregory Bovino, the public face of the crackdown, again turned blame for the shooting to Mr Pretti.

“When someone makes the choice to come into an active law enforcement scene, interfere, obstruct, delay or assault law enforcement officer and — and they bring a weapon to do that,” he told reporters.

“That is a choice that that individual made.”

The competing comments emerged as local leaders and Democrats across the country demanded immigration officers leave Minnesota after Mr Pretti’s shooting, which set off clashes with protesters in a city already shaken by another shooting death weeks earlier.

Video shot by bystanders and reviewed by The Associated Press appears to contradict statements by US President Donald Trump’s administration, which said agents fired “defensively” against Mr Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, as he approached them.

Mr Pretti can be seen with only a phone in his hand as he steps between an immigration agent and a woman on the street.

No footage appears to show him with a weapon.

During the scuffle, agents appear to disarm him after discovering that he was carrying a 9mm semiautomatic handgun, and then opened fire several times.

Mr Pretti was licenced to carry a concealed weapon.

In the hours after the shooting, US homeland security secretary Kristi Noem said Mr Pretti attacked officers, and Mr Bovino said he wanted to “massacre law enforcement”.

Mr Bovino was more restrained on Sunday, saying he would not speculate about the shooting and that he planned to wait for the investigation.

Mr Pretti’s family said they were “heartbroken but also very angry” at authorities.

Relatives were furious at federal officials’ description of the shooting.

“The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting,” the family statement said.

“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.

“Please get the truth out about our son.”

Mr Pretti was shot just over a mile from where an ICE officer killed 37-year-old Renee Good on January 7, sparking widespread protests.

A federal judge has already issued an order blocking the Trump administration from “destroying or altering evidence” related to the shooting, after state and county officials sued.

Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison said the legal case filed on Saturday is meant to preserve evidence collected by federal officials that state authorities have not yet been able to inspect.

A court hearing is scheduled for Monday in federal court in St Paul.

“A full, impartial, and transparent investigation into his fatal shooting at the hands of DHS agents is non-negotiable,” Mr Ellison said in a statement.

Drew Evans, superintendent of the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which investigates police shootings, told reporters on Saturday that federal officers blocked his agency from the scene of the shooting even after it obtained a signed judicial warrant.

On Sunday morning, bureau officers were working at the scene.

Assistant homeland security secretary Tricia McLaughlin dismissed the case, saying claims that the federal government would destroy evidence are “a ridiculous attempt to divide the American people and distract from the fact that our law enforcement officers were attacked — and their lives were threatened”.

The Minnesota National Guard temporarily assisted local police at Mr Walz’s direction, officials said, with troops sent to the shooting site and a federal building where officers have squared off daily with demonstrators.

But Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said on Sunday morning on CBS’ Face the Nation that “it’s back to just the Minneapolis police responding to calls”.

Mr O’Hara said he had seen no evidence that Mr Pretti brandished the pistol, and that the crackdown was exhausting his department.

“This is taking an enormous toll, trying to manage all this chaos on top of having to be the police department for a major city. It’s too much,” he said.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York was among several Democratic legislators demanding that federal immigration authorities leave Minnesota.

In a statement, former US president Barack Obama called Mr Pretti’s death a “heartbreaking tragedy” and warned that “many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault”.

He urged the White House to work with city and state officials.

“This has to stop,” Mr Obama said.

Federal officials have repeatedly questioned why Mr Pretti was armed during the confrontation.

But gun rights groups noted that it is legal to carry firearms during protests.

“Every peaceable Minnesotan has the right to keep and bear arms — including while attending protests, acting as observers, or exercising their First Amendment rights,” the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus said in a statement.

“These rights do not disappear when someone is lawfully armed.”

When the Saturday confrontation began, bystander video shows protesters blowing whistles and shouting profanities at federal officers on a commercial street in south Minneapolis.

The videos show Mr Pretti stepping in after an immigration officer shoves a woman.

Mr Pretti appears to be holding his phone towards the officer, but there is no sign he is holding a weapon.

The officer shoves Mr Pretti in his chest and pepper sprays him and the woman.

Soon, at least seven officers force Mr Pretti to the ground.

Several officers try to bring his arms behind his back as he appears to resist.

An officer holding a canister strikes him near his head several times.

A first shot is fired by a border patrol officer.

There is a slight pause, and then the same officer fires several more times into Mr Pretti’s back.

Multiple officers back off and within seconds, Mr Pretti is motionless on the street.

Demonstrations broke out in several cities across the country after the shooting, including New York, Washington and Los Angeles.

In Minneapolis, protesters converged in the neighbourhood where Mr Pretti had been shot despite dangerously cold weather with temperatures around minus six degrees (minus 21 celsius).

An angry crowd screamed profanities at federal officers after the shooting, calling them “cowards” and telling them to go home.

Protesters dragged large garbage bins from alleyways to block streets, lighting at least one on fire.

As darkness fell, hundreds of people mourned quietly by a growing memorial at the site of the shooting.

A doughnut shop and a clothing store nearby stayed open, offering protesters a warm place.

By morning, the scene was calm.

Brett Williams, 37, came from the city’s suburbs to a morning vigil at the scene.

“I stand in solidarity with a brother whose life was taken too soon,” he said.

“He’s standing up for immigrants. We’re all immigrants.”