A majority of American voters believe that Minnesota nurse Alex Pretti was murdered by Donald Trump‘s Border Patrol, a damning poll suggests.
The 37-year-old died after he was shot around ten times on Saturday.
Gruesome videos of the event show Pretti apprehended by over a half dozen agents before he was shot in the back. The Department of Veterans Affairs intensive care unit worker had a handgun and two fully packed magazines when he was encountered, putting officers on edge.
However, just before he was shot and killed, an agent disarmed Pretti.
According to the Daily Mail/JL Partners poll conducted of over 1,000 American voters on Monday, 54 percent believe that the federal law enforcement murdered Pretti. The margin of error is 3.1 percent.
More than one in five Republicans, 22 percent, said Pretti’s killing constituted murder.
Just 21 percent of all respondents indicated that shooting and killing the nurse was justified.
The killing – just two weeks after Minnesota woman Renee Nicole Good was fatally shot by federal agents – has shocked the nation and led to protests around Minneapolis and the state. It has also shaken confidence in the President.
A majority of American voters believe Alex Pretti was murdered by Border Patrol agents, according to a Daily Mail/JR Partners poll
Pretti has an altercation with an ICE agent moments before he is fatally shot on Saturday
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Pretti ‘shouldn’t have been carrying a gun’
Democrats and Republicans in Congress have since called for an investigation into the shooting. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is conducting an internal investigation into the matter, as are local authorities in Minneapolis.
There has been no indication from the FBI whether it will probe the shooting.
The poll results are indicative of the tenuous moment Trump’s deportation mandate faces after the two American deaths.
In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, the administration was quick to label Pretti as a domestic terrorist who was hellbent on killing federal agents.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Trump’s top adviser Stephen Miller have since had to backtrack on their incendiary initial comments.
‘A would-be assassin tried to murder federal law enforcement,’ Miller published on social media within hours of the shooting.
He has since blamed CBP for feeding the White House bad information – leading to Noem and his statements.
‘We are evaluating why the CBP team may not have been following that protocol,’ Miller said in a statement given to the Daily Mail.
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Should Trump respond directly to voters who say the shooting was unjustified?
Border Patrol agents apprehending Pretti on Saturday
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has faced heavy scrutiny following the deaths of Good and Pretti
A preliminary CBP investigation reportedly found that two agents opened fire on Pretti.
Since Saturday, Trump has elevated border czar Tom Homan to lead ICE deportation operations in Minnesota.
The move is widely seen as a condemnation of Noem’s handling of the mission that has sent 3,000 federal agents to the state.
A close Noem ally, Greg Bovino, the ex-Border Patrol chief who was the face of the on-ground force, has been reassigned to his California border sector and stripped of his title.
Reports indicate that he was also locked out of his social media after dueling with personalities online. Those reports indicate that Bovino is now planning on retiring soon.
