President Donald Trump admitted ‘I don’t like any shooting’ when asked about the fatal confrontation between Border Patrol and Minnesota nurse Alex Pretti as he gave state officials an ultimatum to turn over all criminal migrants.
The commander-in-chief appeared reluctant to fully defend the unidentified agent who shot Pretti in broad daylight as he expressed his dismay over the man’s death during a brief discussion with The Wall Street Journal.
‘I don’t like any shooting. I don’t like it,’ Trump said. ‘But I don’t like it when somebody goes into a protest and he’s got a very powerful, fully-loaded gun with two magazines loaded up with bullets also. That doesn’t play good either.’
Pretti, 37, was shot dead by a Border Patrol agent in broad daylight in Minneapolis on Saturday during a targeted immigration enforcement operation.
Trump administration officials have claimed he ‘approached’ Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun prior to the fatal shooting – which came just weeks after Renee Good, 37, was shot dead by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
The president on Sunday said his administration will now investigate Pretti’s fatal shooting, as he signaled a willingness to withdraw immigration enforcement officials from Minneapolis.
‘We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination,’ Trump told the Journal. ‘At some point we will leave.’
The president also penned a lengthy Truth Social post on Sunday that ordered Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to turn over all criminal migrants in the state.
President Donald Trump has called on Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to turn over all migrants with a criminal history
Alex Pretti, 37, was shot dead by a Border Patrol agent in broad daylight in Minneapolis on Saturday during a targeted immigration enforcement operation
Trump called on Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and ‘EVERY Democrat Governor and Mayor in the US to formally cooperate with the Trump Administration to enforce our Nation’s Laws, rather than resist and stoke the flames of Division, Chaos and Violence.’
He then ordered Walz and Frey to ‘turn over all Criminal Illegal Aliens that are currently incarcerated at their State Prisons and Jails to federal authorities, along with all illegal criminals with an active warrant or known Criminal History for Immediate Deportation.’
The president also said state and local police must agree to turn over any migrant who has committed a crime, and local authorities must assist their federal partners in arresting migrants accused of crimes.
‘Some Democrats, in places like Memphis, Tennessee or Washington DC have done so, resulting in safer streets for ALL,’ Trump wrote.
At that point, Trump announced that he is also asking Congress to pass legislation ending sanctuary cities, which he argued is ‘the root cause of all of these problems.’
‘American cities should be Safe Sanctuaries for Law Abiding American Citizens ONLY, not illegal Alien Criminals who broke our Nation’s Laws,’ Trump wrote, arguing that his requests are ‘rooted in COMMON SENSE and will provide the best possible circumstances to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!’
‘The Trump Administration is standing by and waiting for ANY Democrat to do the right thing and work with us on these important matters of MAKING AMERICA SAFE like it is in all sections of our country where we are, together with Local Leadership, participating and involved.’
The president’s decree comes just hours after Walz begged Trump to remove federal agents from his state. He is pictured with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison
The Trump administration has made similar demands in the past, with Attorney General Pam Bondi sending Walz a letter urging him to ‘cooperate fully’ with Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Friday.
In a three-page letter, she accused state officials of ‘anti-law enforcement rhetoric’ and ‘putting federal agents in danger’.
Bondi also called on the governor to ‘repeal sanctuary policies’ in Minnesota and asked that ‘all detention facilities’ in the state ‘cooperate fully with ICE’ and ‘honor detention retainers’.
She then requested that Minnesota give the Department of Justice access to its voter rolls to ‘confirm that Minnesota’s voter registration practices comply with federal law’.
‘I am confident that these simple steps will help bring back law and order to Minnesota and improve the lives of Americans,’ Bondi added.
But on Sunday, Walz hit back at the allegations, calling them ‘a red herring’ and ‘untrue’ as he pleaded with the president to remove federal officers from his city.
‘What is the plan, Donald? What do we need to do to get these federal agents out of our state?’ the Minnesota governor asked.
‘President Trump, you can end this today. Pull these folks back, do humane, focused, effective immigration control — you’ve got the support of all of us to do that,’ he begged. ‘Show some decency. Pull these folks out.’
Footage captured by bystanders appeared to show Pretti disarmed before being shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis
He argued in his address that ICE agents have overstepped their authority in Minnesota following Pretti’s death.
‘It’s their job to do Immigrations and Customs Enforcement,’ the governor said. ‘It’s law enforcement’s job to do law enforcement in Minnesota.’
He added: ‘We’re not going to do your job for you. We have other things we need to do.’
However, Trump seemingly doubled down on his claim that Somali immigrants in Minneapolis have been committing major fraud.
‘Minnesota is a Criminal COVER UP of the massive Financial Fraud that has gone on!’ he posted on his Truth Social platform as Walz’s press conference was underway.
The president had deployed thousands of federal immigration agents to heavily Democratic Minneapolis for weeks, after conservative media reported on the alleged fraud.
Minneapolis has one of the country’s highest concentrations of Somali immigrants.
Still, Walz accused the Trump administration of launching a smear campaign against Pretti, whom federal officials have said wanted to ‘massacre law enforcement.’
Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, could be seen on the street filming with his phone while a small group confronts a federal agent. His other hand appeared to be empty
Pretti can be seen holding a bright, shiny object during a struggle with federal agents
‘You know what you saw,’ Walz said, before going on to accuse Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other top officials of ‘sullying his name within minutes of this event happening’.
‘This is an inflection point, America. If we cannot all agree that the smearing of an American citizen and besmirching everything they stood for and asking us not to believe what we saw, I don’t know what else to tell you,’ Walz said.
Walz then addressed the American public directly, urging them to denounce Trump’s immigration crackdown and the killing of civilians by federal officers.
‘What side do you want to be on?’ Walz asked. ‘The side of an all powerful federal government that can kill, injure, menace and kidnap its citizens off the streets or on the side of a nurse at the VA who died bearing witness to such government.’
Walz also suggested that Trump was trying to ‘make an example of Minnesota’ but said he was proud of his state for standing up to the administration.
‘We believe in law and order in this state. In this state, we believe in peace, and we believe that Donald Trump needs to pull these 3,000 untrained agents out of Minnesota before they kill another person.’
Walz also revealed that he spoke with Alex Pretti’s heartbroken family, who allegedly want Americans to keep fighting for him
The governor then shared that he has spoken with Pretti’s heartbroken family and alleged that they want Americans to keep fighting for him.
‘The heartache in the hours after your son is murdered in front of the world is one thing, but what stood out to me was a parent’s desire and their passion to make sure that the story of Alex was told,’ Walz said of Pretti’s parents.
He claimed the nurse’s father Michael told him: ‘Don’t let them forget Alex’s story.’
But the Department of Homeland Security has said Pretti was shot after he ‘approached’ Border Patrol officers with a handgun.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem claimed that officers ‘clearly feared for their lives’ and fired defensive shots at Pretti after he ‘violently’ resisted federal agents.
Federal authorities claimed the intensive care unit nurse was carrying a loaded Sig Sauer P320 9mm pistol, but video captured at the scene appears to show officers disarming him before shots rang out.
Minneapolis police say Pretti had no serious criminal history and was a lawful gun owner with a valid permit.
After Pretti was disarmed, videos do not clearly show where the first shot came from but one gun expert has said he believes Pretti’s Sig Sauer P320 went off in the hands of an agent, prompting another agent to open fire.
‘I believe it’s highly likely the first shot was a negligent discharge from the agent in the grey jacket after he removed the Sig P320 from Pretti’s holster while exiting the scene,’ Rob Dobar, a lawyer for the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, wrote on X.
Multiple bystander videos show a Border Patrol agent shooting and killing Pretti after a roughly 30-second scuffle around 9am Saturday.
The videos appear to contradict statements by DHS, 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 9mm semiautomatic handgun, and they opened fire with several shots.
Federal officials have not released the agent’s identity, but did confirm the officer who shot Pretti is an eight-year Border Patrol veteran.
Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, who has led the administration’s big-city immigration campaign, said the officer who shot Pretti had extensive training as a range safety officer and in using less-lethal force.
A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order banning the Trump administration from ‘destroying or altering evidence’ related to the death of Pretti.
It has not been confirmed whether Pretti’s gun fired any shots.
