October 2, 2026
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — In dueling news conferences, federal and state officials offered starkly different messages Sunday about the immigration crackdown that has swept across Minneapolis and surrounding cities, with both claiming the moral high ground after another shooting death by federal agents.
In a federal office building about 20 miles away, Border Patrol senior official Greg Bovino, the public face of the crackdown, blamed the Saturday shooting on the man who was killed, Alex Pretti.
“When someone makes the choice to come into an active law enforcement scene, interfere, obstruct, delay, or assault a law enforcement officer, and they bring a weapon to do that. That is a choice that that individual made,” he told reporters.
“Which side do you want to be on?" Gov. 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?”
President Donald Trump’s administration has said agents fired “defensively” against Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, as he approached them.
In video shot by bystanders, Pretti can be seen with a phone in his hand as he steps between an immigration agent and a woman on the street. During the scuffle, agents appear to disarm him after discovering he is carrying a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun, and then open fire several times. Pretti was licensed to carry a concealed weapon.
In the hours after the shooting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti attacked officers, and Bovino said he wanted to “massacre law enforcement.”
Bovino was more restrained on Sunday, saying he would not speculate about the shooting and that he planned to wait for the investigation.
Pretti’s family said they were “heartbroken but also very angry” at authorities. Relatives were furious at federal officials’ description of the shooting.
"And I would say, President Trump, you can end this today. Pull these folks back. Do humane, focused, effective immigration control,” Walz said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X that Walz "does NOT believe in law and order” and accused him of encouraging “left-wing agitators to stalk and record federal officers in the middle of lawful operations.”
At the federal news conference, Marcos Charles of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said one of their agents permanently lost a part of his finger when a protester bit it off Saturday in Minneapolis.
“This kind of violence is not a coincidence,” Charles said. “When sanctuary politicians, activists, and the media work hard to create chaos and fear instead of using their platforms to reassure their communities, this is the result.”
Drew Evans, superintendent of the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which investigates police shootings, told reporters Saturday that federal officers had blocked his agency from the scene of the shooting even after it obtained a signed judicial warrant. Bureau officers were working at the scene Sunday morning.
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. A hearing is scheduled for Monday in federal court in St. Paul.
Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin dismissed the lawsuit, 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 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 Sunday morning on CBS' "Face the Nation" that “it’s back to just the Minneapolis police responding to calls.”
Federal officials have repeatedly questioned why Pretti was armed during the confrontation. But gun rights groups noted that it's 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.”
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