37-year-old Alex Pretti has been identified as the person who was fatally shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis on Saturday (US time). It marks the third overall shooting incident involving federal authorities this month alone, and second fatal shooting after Renee Nicole Good was shot dead in the state of Minnesota weeks ago.

As the major ICE crackdown continues in the city of Minneapolis, videos circulating online have once again raised starkly contrasting accounts of federal officials. Even as the United States braces for a brutal winter storm, the streets of the Whittier neighbourhood in Minneapolis were jammed with traffic as over a thousand protesters gathered in Whittier Park to hold a vigil for the man killed by ICE agents, as per details relayed by the New York Times.

Who was Alex Pretti?

A senior law enforcement official familiar with the investigation revealed that the man fatally shot in Minneapolis on Saturday was Alex Jeffrey Pretti, according to the NYT. He was an American citizen, born in Illinois, and a registered nurse who worked in the intensive-care unit (ICU) at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Minneapolis.

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Pretti had no criminal record. He live in a Minneapolis apartment, which was a short drive away from where he was killed.

According to the Associated Press, the 37-year-old nurse had even worked for the US Department of Veteran Affairs. His family members have since shared with the US news outlet that Pretti had become an avid participant of Minneapolis protests amid the ongoing ICE crackdown especially after the Jan 7 killing of Renee Good by an ICE officer.

Having grown up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Alex Pretti had been a Boy Scout and sang in the Green Bay Boy Choir, as per the AP. He played football, baseball and ran track for Preble High School. Following his graduation, he completed his bachelor’s degree in biology, society and the environment at the University of Minnesota in 2011.

Before returning to school to become a registered nurse, he worked as a research scientist.

Minneapolis ICE shooting: What happened?

As per the account shared online by the Department of Homeland Security, the now-deceased man was shot after he “approached” Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun when they were “conducting a targeted operation… against an illegal alien wanted for violent assault.”

As far as the DHS’ tweet goes, Pretti was armed at the time of the altercation and federal officer attempted to disarm him but he “violently resisted.”

“Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, an agent fired defensive shots. Medics on scene immediately delivered medical aid to the subject but was pronounced dead at the scene,” the DHS added in the X post. “The suspect also had 2 magazines and no ID—this looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”

Meanwhile, the video of the incident circulating online appears to show the ICU nurse attempting to help a woman who had been pepper-sprayed. As the chaotic scenes unfolded, agents can be seen wrestling Pretti and pulling him away.

The video further shed light on Pretti being sprayed with chemical agent as well, as he was pinned down to the ground by about half a dozen agents. Multiple shots of gunfire were ultimately heard on the scene, as per the video. The fatally shot man, now ID’d as Alex Pretti, was eventually spotted lying on the ground lifeless.

Did Alex Pretti use a gun against ICE?

Although DHS’ post on X seemingly insists that Pretti brandished the gun at the time of the altercation, bystander videos emerging online paint a different picture. As per the clips going around, the Minneapolis man was seen with a phone in his hand at the scene. The videos don’t appear to show him wielding a visible weapon.

His family members revealed that Pretti had owned a handgun and had a permit to carry a concealed handgun in Minnesota, according to the AP. As per their account, they had never known him to carry the weapon.

Another ICE shooting – Contradictions emerge

The left and right have once again been entangled in a war of words, as descriptions offered by federal authorities and other officials starkly vary from each other.

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While Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller branded Pretti a “domestic terrorist” and “a would-be assassin,” Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has slammed such descriptions by alluding to the video circulating online.

“Thank God we have video, because according to DHS, these seven heroic guys took an onslaught of a battalion against them,” Walz said on X, as he went on to accused federal officers of “spinning stories” and “rushing to judgement.” He added, “They’re telling you not to trust your eyes and ears.”

Meanwhile, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said at a news conference that the city is filing a declaration “to encourage the judge to rule on a temporary restraining order on Monday” to stop federal immigration operations in the city. Calling these operations “harmful” to the state and city, he asserted they have led to “multiple shootings and tragic deaths.”

US President Donald Trump, on the other hand, re-shared the same image of the weapon DHS claims was found on Pretti. Taking to Truth Social, the POTUS wrote in a lengthy post, “This is the gunman’s gun, loaded (with two additional full magazines!), and ready to go – What is that all about? Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers? The Mayor and the Governor called them off? It is stated that many of these Police were not allowed to do their job, that ICE had to protect themselves – Not an easy thing to do!”

Similarly, Vice President JD Vance amplified the Truth Social post, adding on X, “When I visited Minnesota, what the ICE agents wanted more than anything was to work with local law enforcement so that situations on the ground didn’t get out of hand. The local leadership in Minnesota has so far refused to answer those requests.”