More tension in a city where things were already fraught.
A situation that was already a tinder box now verges on an inferno.
A man identified in press reports as Alex Jeffrey Pretti was shot and killed by an unidentified border patrol agent in Minneapolis this morning. The chief of police there, Brian O’Hara, says that the deceased was a 37-year-old white male, apparently an American citizen, who was licensed to carry a firearm. The New York Times reports that Minnesota law authorizes citizens to carry guns in public, without concealment.
Pretti was not the subject of the immigration enforcement operation that federal agents were conducting. He was an “observer” who was watching and apparently recording the federal agents.
As is always the case in these situations, video from various angles is springing up on social media. It is not clear whether Pretti was armed at the time he was shot by the agent. He seems to have gotten into an altercation with the agents after possibly coming to the assistance of, and grabbing, another onlooker who had been pushed down by the agents. (See, e.g., here — language warning.)
If the account of the local police and other reporting is correct, then the statement put out by the Department of Homeland Security appears dubious.
DHS told Fox’s Bill Melugin that the federal agents were engaged in a “targeted operation” against “an illegal alien wanted for violent assault.” During the operation, the man since identified as Pretti approached Border Patrol agents, according to DHS, “with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun,” of which the agency provided a photo.
At this early point, it is not clear from various videos in circulation whether Pretti had the gun in his possession at the time of the altercation, whether he had it but was disarmed by the agents during the struggle, or whether the Border Patrol agent who shot him saw Pretti either in possession of or reaching for a gun. The photo shown by DHS just depicts the gun said to have been taken from Pretti — but the agency does not say whether agents seized it from his person during or after the altercation.
In the absence of having conducted anything resembling a competent investigation of the matter, DHS conclusorily said “the suspect” — a reference to Pretti, although it’s hard to understand how he was a suspect at the time — “also had 2 magazines [presumably, for reloading his handgun] and no ID — this looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”
Apparently, Pretti was legally in possession of a gun; and, putting aside that we don’t know exactly where the gun was at the time of the altercation, it seems clear that Pretti was observing numerous federal agents before the altercation — i.e., if his intention had been to “massacre” agents and do “maximum damage,” he had plenty of opportunity to do that. It’s thus difficult to understand how DHS could leap to the conclusions it has leapt to.
Border patrol agents have been deployed to cities, such as Minneapolis, in which Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have ramped up search-and-detention operations. The DHS statement says the Border Patrol agent who shot the man now identified as Pretti did so “defensively” because the agent was “fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers.”
DHS added that the agents tried to disarm “the suspect,” who “violently resisted.”
The Fox report elaborates that, apparently in reaction to the shooting, “about 200 rioters quickly arrived on the scene and began to obstruct and assault law enforcement.” As a result, what the government euphemistically refers to as “crowd control measures” were deployed.
Just as DHS has been too quick to make bold pronouncements about what happened, Democratic politicians are also in on the act. Representative Ilhan Omar is typical, labeling the incident a “murder,” an “execution.” A state official says it’s another episode of ICE “terrorizing the city.” Always helpful, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller pronounced Pretti a “domestic terrorist,” and a “would-be assassin [who] tried to murder federal law enforcement.”
O’Hara, the Minneapolis police chief, says that federal agents tried to take control of the shooting scene, telling the local police they were not needed and could leave. O’Hara, however, ordered his cops to remain on the scene and secure it — as police would ordinarily do at a shooting in which someone was killed.
To be clear, the federal agents have jurisdiction to investigate immigration crimes and any related obstruction. This does not change the fact that the state and local police have jurisdiction to investigate shootings on the streets of their cities, including shootings by federal agents. If the federal agents have immunity from prosecution or can get any state charges removed to federal court, those are legal matters that can be asserted and decided down the road. For now, the feds have no authority to tell the state and local police to vacate the scene of a legitimate state and local investigation. The feds have supremacy only in their legitimate spheres of enforcement; the states are still sovereign when it comes to their legitimate spheres, which include public safety and local law enforcement.
This is a breaking story, so it would not be surprising if, as more details come in, early reporting proves to be incomplete or inaccurate. That’s why, to repeat, I think it’s a mistake for Trump administration officials and Minnesota Democrats to continue making bold pronouncements before the smoke clears and an investigation can be conducted.
As this is written, the reported temperature in Minneapolis is -4 degrees. It does not appear, however, that the bitter cold is much reducing the crowds and tensions on the street.