Federal and state officials are offering very different messages about immigration suppression after the shootings

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — In dueling news conferences, federal and state officials delivered starkly different messages Sunday about the immigration crackdown sweeping Minneapolis and surrounding cities, with each claiming the moral high ground after another was shot to death by federal agents.

“Which side do you want to be on?” Gov. Tim Walz asked the crowd. “On the side of a powerful federal government that can kill, wound, threaten, and kidnap its own citizens from the streets, or on the side of a nurse in a Virginia hospital who died bearing witness to such a government?” – in reference to the shooting of Alex Peretti on Saturday in Minneapolis.

Read more: A judge will hear arguments on Trump’s anti-immigration campaign in Minnesota after the deadly shooting

At a federal office building about 20 miles (32 kilometers) away, Greg Bovino, a senior Border Patrol official who is the public face of the crackdown, again blamed Pretty for the shooting.

“When someone chooses to enter an active law enforcement location, interfere, obstruct, delay or assault a law enforcement officer and – and they bring a weapon to do so. That is a choice that person has made,” he told reporters.

The competing comments emerged as local leaders and Democrats across the country demanded federal immigration officers leave Minnesota after Pretty’s shooting, which led to clashes with protesters in a city already rocked by another shooting weeks earlier.

The video contradicts the administration’s statements

Video shot by bystanders and reviewed by The Associated Press appeared to contradict statements by President Donald Trump’s administration, which said agents fired “defensively” at Preeti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, when he approached them.

Preity can be seen with only a phone in his hand as he steps between the immigration agent and a woman on the street. There does not appear to be any footage showing him carrying a weapon. During the struggle, agents apparently disarmed him after discovering he was carrying a 9mm semi-automatic handgun, then shot him several times. Pretty was licensed to carry a concealed weapon.

In the hours after the shooting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Prete attacked officers, and Bovino said he wanted to “massacre law enforcement.”

Bovino was more reserved Sunday, saying he would not speculate about the shooting and that he planned to wait for the investigation.

Relatives say they are sad

Preeti’s family said they were “sad but also very angry” at the authorities. Relatives were outraged by federal officials’ description of the shooting.

“The disgusting lies the administration has told about our son are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex clearly did not have a gun when he was attacked by Trump’s murderous and cowardly thugs. He was holding his phone in his right hand, and his empty left hand was raised above his head as he tried to protect the woman who was pushed down by ICE while pepper spraying her,” the family’s statement read.

“Please reveal the truth about our son.”

A video posted on social media in 2024 showed Pretty reading a tribute to veteran Terrance Lee Randolph, who died at the VA hospital where Pretty worked.

Preeti says in the video: “Today we remember that freedom is not free.” “We must work for it, nurture it, protect it, and even sacrifice for it.”

Walz denounced the comments made by federal officials about Pretty as “despicable beyond all description.”

“And I would say, President Trump, you can end this today. Withdraw these people. And do immigration control in a humane, focused, effective manner,” he said.

The White House continued its attacks on the governor, with press secretary Carolyn Leavitt posting on X that Walz “doesn’t believe in law and order” and accusing him of encouraging “left-wing agitators to hunt down and record federal officers in the middle of legal processes.”

At the federal news conference, Marcus Charles of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said one of their agents permanently lost part of a finger when a protester bit off it Saturday in Minneapolis.

“This kind of violence is not a coincidence,” Charles said. “When politicians, activists and the media work hard to create chaos and fear instead of using their platforms to reassure their communities, this is the result.”

Read more: Republican calls are growing for a deeper investigation into the fatal shooting of Alex Peretti in Minneapolis

Pretty was shot just over a mile from where ICE officer killed 37-year-old Rene Judd on Jan. 7, sparking widespread protests.

Federal officials, who are leading the investigation into the shooting, have thwarted local attempts to get involved.

Drew Evans, supervisor of the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which investigates police shootings, told reporters on Saturday that federal officers prevented his agency from reaching the scene of the shooting even after it obtained a signed warrant. Bureau officers were working at the scene Sunday morning.

A federal judge has already issued an order barring the Trump administration from “destroying or altering evidence” related to the shooting, after state and county officials filed a lawsuit.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said the lawsuit filed on Saturday aims to preserve evidence collected by federal officials that state authorities have not yet been able to examine. A hearing is scheduled for Monday in federal court in St. Paul.

Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin dismissed the lawsuit, saying claims that the federal government would destroy evidence are “an absurd attempt to divide the American people and distract from the reality that our law enforcement officers are being attacked — and their lives threatened.”

The Minnesota National Guard temporarily assisted local police in the Falls direction, with troops sent to the site of the shooting and the federal building where officers clash daily with protesters, officials said.

But Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Sunday morning on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that “it’s just up to the Minneapolis police to respond to the calls.”

There is no evidence that Preeti brandished her gun

O’Hara said he saw no evidence that Pretty brandished the gun, and that the campaign was stressful for his department.

“It takes a huge toll, trying to manage all this chaos on top of having to be the police department in a major city. It’s too much,” he said.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York was among several Democratic lawmakers who called on federal immigration authorities to leave Minnesota.

In a statement, former President Barack Obama called Preeti’s death a “heartbreaking tragedy” and warned that “many of our fundamental values ​​as a nation are under increasing attack.”

Meanwhile, federal officials have repeatedly questioned why Pretty was armed during the standoff. But gun rights groups have noted that it is legal to carry firearms during protests.

Video footage shows the push and then the shooting

When the confrontation began Saturday, bystander video showed protesters blowing whistles and yelling profanities at federal officers on a commercial street in south Minneapolis.

The videos show Preeti intervening after an immigration officer pushed a woman. Pretty appears to be holding his phone toward the officer, but there is no indication he has a weapon.

Read more: Videos showing the fatal shooting of Alex Peretti in Minneapolis contradict statements from the Trump administration

The officer pushes Preeti in the chest and pepper-sprays him and the woman.

Pretty was soon forced to the ground by at least seven officers. Several officers try to put his arms behind his back while he appears to resist. An officer carrying a grenade hit him near the head several times.

The Border Patrol officer fired the first shot. There is a slight pause, and then the same officer shoots Pretty several times in the back. Many officers retreat. Within seconds, Preeti was motionless in the street.

If Saturday was marked by clashes, as angry demonstrators blocked streets and fired tear gas, Sunday was marked by sadness.

Police cars with flashing lights blocked traffic in front of the building where the shooting occurred, and people streamed in continuously on Sunday and gathered near the spot where Preeti was shot. There were 100 or so people at the scene Sunday night. Some sang, some prayed, some brought flowers or lit candles. TV news crews were stationed on the edges of the crowd, and a man was handing out hand warmers with temperatures just above 0 F (minus 18 C).

Brett Williams, 37, came from the city’s outskirts to attend a vigil there earlier Sunday.

“I stand in solidarity with the brother whose life was taken too soon,” he said. “He stands up for immigrants. We are all immigrants.”

Associated Press writers Jack Brock, Tim Sullivan in Minneapolis, Michael Biesecker and Michelle L. Kennedy contributed to this story. Price in Washington and Jim Mustan in New York.