Minnesota Gov Walz Calls for Trump to Pull ICE Agents After Nurse Killed in Minneapolis Protests
Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz, has demanded that US president donald Trump pull “untrained” federal immigration agents out of the state after the fatal shooting of a demonstrator in Minneapolis, the second such killing in the city amid an ongoing immigration crackdown.
As calls mounted for an autonomous examination into the killing of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, Walz posed a question directly to Trump during a news briefing on Sunday.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 items
end of list
“What’s the plan, Donald Trump? What is the plan?” walz asked.
“What do we need to do to get these federal agents out of our state? You thought fear,violence and chaos is what you wanted from us? Then you clearly underestimate the people of this state and nation.”
“We believe in law and order in this state; we believe in peace,” Walz added. “And we believe that Donald Trump needs to pull these 3,000 untrained agents out of Minnesota before they kill another person.”
Walz’s comments came after senior Trump administration officials defended Pretti’s killing, despite graphic video evidence appearing to contradict their accounts.
Federal agents shot and killed Pretti on Saturday while scuffling with him on an icy roadway in Minneapolis, less than three weeks after an immigration officer shot dead Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three and US citizen.
trump administration officials have claimed that Pretti intended to harm the agents, as they did after Good’s death, pointing to a handgun they said was discovered on his person.
Videos shared widely on social media and verified by US media showed Pretti never drawing a weapon, with agents firing about 10 shots at him seconds after he was sprayed in the face with a chemical irritant and thrown to the ground.
The footage has further inflamed the ongoing protests in Minneapolis against the presence of federal immigration agents, with about 1,000 people participating in a exhibition on Sunday.
The claims that border agents act in self-defense, echoed by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other members of the trump administration on Sunday, have prompted outrage among local law enforcement, many Minneapolis residents and Democrats on Capitol Hill.
Trump, who had earlier described Pretti as a “gunman”, on Sunday laid the blame for his and Good’s deaths on Democrats, accusing state and local authorities of refusing to cooperate with federal authorities.
“By doing this, Democrats are putting Illegal Alien Criminals over Taxpaying, Law-Abiding Citizens, and they have created dangerous circumstances for EVERYONE involved. tragically,two American Citizens have lost their lives as a result of this Democrat ensued chaos,” Trump said on Truth Social.
Democratic strategist Arshad Hasan said Pretti’s killing and its aftermath were “deeply unsettling”, and accused federal agents of turning a low‑crime city into an “occupation”.
“I don’t know why a government agency should get particular exemptions from due process when somebody is murdered… Homicide is a