On January 24th, 2026, Alex Pretti was murdered by ICE agents in Minneapolis. This is the second ICE shooting that has happened in Minnesota this month, occurring less than three weeks after the murder of Renee Good. Alex Pretti was a 37-year-old ICU nurse at a nearby VA hospital.
Videos from multiple angles reveal that the shooting happened on a street in Minneapolis, at around nine in the morning. There were several protestors recording ICE agents that had shown up in the area, including Pretti. It is noted that after the shooting occurred, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS ) sent out a message about the situation, saying that the man had been pointing a 9mm semi-automatic weapon at agents. However, multiple videos that recorded the scene show that he was holding only a phone in his hands, not a weapon.
Pretti and two other protestors were at the side of a road near a car when an agent angrily stormed over and began to spray a chemical irritant in their direction. Pretti attempted to shield the other protestors from the attack, as his back was to the agents. As the agent shoved him, the nurse fell over another protester, whom he was still trying to block from the spray. Multiple other agents began to walk over, while the agent who had been spraying the people hauled Pretti off of the other person, and forced him onto the ground.
Many officers were surrounding the man, so it is hard to see exactly what happened. It was clearly seen that the agents did find a gun in Pretti’s waistband and took it from him. In Minnesota, it is legal to carry a firearm around. He did not use it or reach for it during the events that were shown. After one of the agents had obtained the firearm, it is recorded that one of the seven ICE agents began shooting at the man. As Pretti attempted to get up while the other agents scattered, shots continued to be fired at him, killing him. In the span of five seconds, there were ten shots fired onto Alex Pretti’s body.
The recordings show that everyone who watched it occur immediately began shouting in shock, outrage, and anger at what they had witnessed. In the hours and days that have followed, people across the country are in an uproar. Demands for investigations into the murder have been made by the governor, Tim Walz and Guns Rights organizations. The DHS and Trump Administration claim that Pretti was trying to attack and ‘massacre’ agents with the weapon he had, that the man was resisting disarmament, and that the shooting was justified. Politicians, activists, and many Americans from across the country– and the political spectrum– have called the administration out on this message that they have sent out about the killing, since it directly goes against what the videos and recountings of the scene show.
