The man who was fatally shot Saturday morning by federal agents in Minneapolis has been identified as 37-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti.
Pretti was an intensive care nurse, an outdoor enthusiast and a dog lover, his parents told the Associated Press. A U.S. citizen, he was a Minneapolis resident and University of Minnesota graduate, The Minnesota Star Tribune reported, and worked in the ICU of a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital.
His parents told the AP he had been participating in the recent protests against President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement that sprang up in Minneapolis in the wake of the killing of Renee Good by an ICE officer earlier this month.
“He thought it was terrible, you know, kidnapping children, just grabbing people off the street,” his father, Michael Pretti, told the AP. “He cared about those people, and he knew it was wrong, so he did participate in protests.”
Pretti was devoted to his Catahoula leopard dog, Joule, before her recent death, and took her on his many outdoor adventures, his parents told the AP, and was deeply bothered by the Trump administration’s slashing of environmental protections.
“He was an outdoorsman,” his mother, Susan Pretti, said. “He took his dog everywhere he went. You know, he loved this country, but he hated what people were doing to it.”
Video taken Saturday morning showed at least six masked federal agents wrestling Pretti to the ground before fatally shooting him. A bystander video taken shortly before the incident shows an agent shoving Pretti as he backs up.
The Department of Homeland Security has alleged that Pretti was armed with a handgun and “violently resisted” officers, with Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Greg Bovino saying an agent fired “defensive shots.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara noted at a press conference that Pretti was a “lawful gun owner with a permit to carry.”
Pretti’s killing sparked a near-instant upswell of protest in a city where, just the day before, thousands of people marched in opposition to ICE.