Videos quickly emerged showing the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis protester by a Border Patrol agent that has been widely denounced as a case of excessive force carried out by untrained federal officers. The administration says it was a case of an armed man provoking violence.

The Associated Press reviewed multiple bystander videos that show a Border Patrol agent shooting and killing 37-year-old Alex Pretti after a roughly 30-second scuffle around 9 a.m. on Saturday (January 24, 2026). The videos appear to contradict statements by the Trump administration, which said the shots were fired “defensively” against Pretti as he “approached” them with a gun.

In the videos, Pretti is seen with only a phone in his hand. None of the footage appears to show him with a weapon. During the scuffle, agents discovered that he was carrying a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun, and they opened fire with several shots. Pretti was licensed to carry a concealed weapon.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who said he watched one of the videos, said he saw “more than six masked agents pummeling one of our constituents, shooting him to death.” Mr. Frey has said Minneapolis and St Paul are being “invaded” by the administration’s largest immigration crackdown, dubbed Operation Metro Surge.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti attacked officers, and Customs and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino said Pretti wanted to do “maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” In posts on X, President Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, called Pretti “a would-be assassin.” It was the second fatal shooting in Minneapolis by federal immigration authorities this month. The first, on January 7, involved Renee Good. It also was captured on videos and produced a similar schism among political leaders.

The shooting occurred when officers were pursuing a man in the country illegally wanted for domestic assault, Mr. Bovino said. Protesters routinely try to disrupt such operations, and they sounded high-pitched whistles, honked horns and yelled at officers.

Among them was Pretti. At one point, in a video obtained by AP, Pretti is standing in the street and holding up his phone. He is face-to-face with an officer in a tactical vest, who places his hand on Pretti and pushes him toward the sidewalk.

Pretti is talking to the officer, though it is not clear what he is saying.

The video shows protesters wandering in and out of the street as officers persist in trying to keep them at bay. One protester is put in handcuffs. Some officers are carrying pepper spray canisters.

Pretti comes in again when the video shows an officer wearing tactical gear shoving a protester. The protester, who is wearing a skirt over black tights and holding a water bottle, reaches out for Pretti.

The same officer shoves Pretti in his chest, leading Pretti and the other protester to stumble backward.

A different video then shows Pretti moving toward another protester, who falls over after being shoved by the same officer. Pretti moves between the protester and the officer, reaching his arms out toward the officer.

The officer deploys pepper spray, and Pretti raises his hand and turns his face. The officer grabs Pretti’s hand to bring it behind his back, deploys the pepper spray canister again and then pushes Pretti away.

Seconds later, at least a half-dozen federal officers surround Pretti, who is wrestled to the ground and hit several times. Several agents try to bring Pretti’s arms behind his back, and he struggles.

Videos show an officer, who is hovering over the scuffle with his right hand on Pretti’s back, backs away from the group with what appears to be a gun in his right hand just before the first shot.

Someone shouts “gun, gun.” It is not clear if that’s a reference to the weapon authorities say Pretti had.

And then the first shot is heard.

Videos do not clearly show who fired the first shot. In one video, seconds before the first shot, one officer reaches for his belt and appears to draw his gun. That same officer is seen with a gun to Pretti’s back as three more shots ring out. Pretti slumps to the ground. Videos show the officers backing away, some with guns drawn. More shots are fired.

The Department of Homeland Security said Pretti was shot after he “approached” Border Patrol officers with a gun. Officials did not say if Pretti brandished the weapon or kept it hidden.

An agency statement said officers fired “defensive shots” after Pretti “violently resisted” officers tried to disarm him.

Walz expressed dismay at the characterisation.

“I’ve seen the videos, from several angles, and it’s sickening,” he said.

Mr. Trump weighed in on social media by lashing out Walz and Frey. Trump shared images of the gun that immigration officials said was recovered from Pretti and said “What is that all about? Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers?”

Published – January 25, 2026 11:23 pm IST

Newly released transcripts ‍of emergency calls and dispatch records on Friday (January 16, 2026) detailed the chaotic and dangerous scene that unfolded after a U.S. immigration officer shot Renee Good in Minneapolis, a killing that has become a ​national flashpoint over President Donald Trump’s harsh immigration crackdown.

In one panicked call after another, witnesses told police what they had seen: Immigration ‌and Customs Enforcement agents in the street, several shots fired at a driver, her vehicle slamming into other cars, blood everywhere.

“There’s 15 ICE ​agents, and they shot her, like, ‘cause she wouldn’t open her car door,” one caller said, adding a stream of profanities.

“ICE fired shots into her windshield,” another caller said, as the operator urged the person to slow their breathing. “She’s bleeding”.

Later, as Good was being pronounced dead at a local hospital, police were trying to evacuate ICE officers from the scene while angry protesters cut down crime-scene tape around the area, according to an incident report that recorded communications between emergency responders.

“ICE BEING SURROUNDED,” one person transmitted at 11:01 a.m., about 80 minutes after the shooting, according to the report.

The transcripts surfaced hours before news that the U.S. Justice Department was investigating Minnesota officials, including Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, over an alleged conspiracy to impede immigration agents.

A source familiar with the matter confirmed reports in ​the Washington Post, CBS News and other outlets that the probe stems from statements made by Walz and Frey, both Democrats, about the thousands ⁠of federal agents deployed to the Minneapolis region in recent weeks. The Justice Department did not immediately comment.

Both officials along with other Minnesota Democrats have denounced the ICE operation and Good’s death, and they accused Mr. Trump of intentionally fomenting chaos.

Thousands of federal agents sent to Minnesota

Minnesota’s most populous city has seen increasingly tense confrontations between residents and federal officers since Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot ​behind the wheel of her car on January 7 by an ICE ⁠officer, Jonathan Ross. At the time, Good was taking part in one of numerous neighborhood patrols organised by local activists to track and monitor ICE activities.

The shooting came a day after the Trump administration announced the deployment of 2,000 immigration agents to Minneapolis in what the U.S. Department of Homeland Security called its largest such operation in history.

The surge in DHS personnel has since grown to nearly 3,000, dwarfing the ranks of local police officers in the Twin ‌Cities metropolitan area of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Since the ICE surge, agents have arrested both immigrants and protesters, at times smashing windows and pulling people ‌from their cars. Some officers have found themselves surrounded by onlookers jeering and shouting at them for stopping Blacks and Latinos who turned out to be U.S. citizens.

Mr. Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, has floated the idea of creating a public database of people arrested ‍on suspicion of interfering with ICE operations or assaulting officers, saying on Fox News on Thursday (January 15, 2026) their identities would then be known to their employers and neighbours.

Mr. Trump administration officials have complained about what they call the “doxing” of federal agents, including Ross, saying that puts officers at risk, leading them to wear masks to protect their identities.

In the case of ‍the Good shooting, Mr. Trump and other administration officials accused her of deliberately trying to run over Ross and other agents at the scene with her car. Videos showed she turned her wheels away from the officers, and Democratic city and state officials have rejected the government’s account as false.

The Trump administration has said Ross was injured during the incident — although video shows him walking around afterward — while noting he was seriously hurt months earlier in an unrelated traffic stop that resulted in him being dragged behind a vehicle.

Minneapolis arrests

Mr. Trump has said the Minneapolis deployment was prompted in part by allegations of fraud among the state’s large Somali American community. Mr. Trump has called Somali immigrants “garbage” and said they should be thrown out of the country.

The DHS said on X that 12 “agitators” were arrested on Thursday (January 15, 2026) night for assaulting law enforcement, without providing details.

As Trump’s deportation drive in Minneapolis neared the end of its second week, the Good shooting remained the only fatality associated with the surge. Fire department records showed paramedics were on the scene ⁠four minutes after the shooting was reported, finding Good in her car unresponsive with four apparent gunshot wounds, including one to her head and two to her chest.

Emergency personnel tried to revive her, both at the scene and in the ambulance en route to the hospital. ​She was pronounced dead less than an hour after being shot.

Meanwhile, at the shooting scene, police were trying to prevent more violence, according to an incident report that recorded communications ⁠among first responders.

Published – January 17, 2026 07:31 am IST