MINNEAPOLIS — Two federal officers fired at Alex Pretti during Saturday’s fatal shooting in Minneapolis, according to a statement sent to some members of Congress by the Department of Homeland Security that provides the first official timeline of the deadly encounter that has sent shock waves across the country.
The statement, based on a preliminary review, makes no mention of Pretti brandishing a weapon. That contradicts Trump administration comments in the immediate aftermath of the confrontation, when senior officials described the 37-year-old as a direct threat to federal officers.
Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol commander then overseeing the Minneapolis operation, suggested that Pretti had wanted to “massacre” officers, while Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said he had “committed an act of domestic terrorism.”
Tuesday’s statement said that as agents attempted to take Pretti into custody, he resisted and “a struggle ensued.” One agent yelled multiple times that Pretti had a gun, and then two agents fired their weapons. Pretti was shot repeatedly and declared dead half an hour later at Hennepin County Medical Center, the statement noted.
By Tuesday, the Trump administration was backing away from some of its inflammatory rhetoric about the shooting and had replaced Bovino with border czar Tom Homan, who arrived in Minneapolis to lead the massive immigration enforcement operation underway in the city.
Homan met Tuesday with state and local officials, part of an apparent effort to lower tensions in a city reeling from the killings of Pretti and Renée Good, another American shot by federal officers during an encounter this month. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) described his conversation with Homan as “productive” but reiterated his call for Operation Metro Surge to end as quickly as possible. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) also characterized the talks as “progress,” while calling for DHS Secretary Kristi L. Noem’s dismissal and a removal of all ICE agents from Minnesota.
“They started this fire, so we’re not giving anybody credit for putting it out,” Walz said in a television interview Tuesday evening. “In all these meetings with the White House and Tom Homan and his team, nobody asked about Alex or his family,” he added.
As the outrage over Pretti’s killing intensifies, the White House has begun to adopt a somewhat more measured tone in response.
“I think the whole thing is terrible,” President Donald Trump said Tuesday in an interview with Fox News, adding: “I don’t like the fact that he was carrying a gun that was fully loaded. … Bottom line, it was terrible.”
Trump also told reporters that replacing Bovino was not a pullback. Bovino is “a pretty out-there kind of guy,” he said. “And in some cases, that’s good. Maybe it wasn’t good here.”
Stephen Miller, Trump’s White House deputy chief of staff, called Pretti an “assassin” shortly after he was killed. On Tuesday, Miller said the administration is evaluating whether federal authorities in Minnesota “may not have been following” official protocol before the shooting.
The White House had “provided clear guidance” that “the extra personnel that had been sent to Minnesota for force protection should be used for conducting fugitive operations to create a physical barrier between the arrest teams and the disruptors,” Miller said. “We are evaluating why the [Customs and Border Protection] team may not have been following that protocol.”
While administration officials initially called Pretti a threat, a Washington Post analysis of footage of the incident found that agents had secured a handgun from Pretti and had restrained him on the ground before he was shot multiple times in the back. Local authorities have said he was carrying the weapon lawfully.
The statement sent by DHS agencies to members of Congress and reviewed by The Post does not detail when Pretti was disarmed.
Initial reports had said that Border Patrol shot Pretti, but on Tuesday, a DHS statement provided to Congress said he was shot by one Border Patrol agent and one Customs and Border Protection officer.
Both entities fall under CBP. But CBP officers monitor the ports of entry and facilitate traffic and trade while the green uniformed Border Patrol monitors the borders between those checkpoints.
Trump privately showed his dissatisfaction with the situation in Minnesota involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol during an extended meeting with Noem late Monday, according to a person familiar with the meeting who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) on Tuesday described Noem as incompetent and called on her to resign. If she does not step down, Trump should fire her, he said.
“I feel like she is discrediting the law enforcement officers of Homeland Security, whether it’s Border Patrol, ICE, Customs,” Tillis told reporters Tuesday evening. “She is way out of her depth. She needs to get out of the DHS.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voiced similar criticism of Noem and said it was time for her to depart.
“She has, through her words and I think in her actions, she’s taken a direction that has not been helpful to the situation, and I don’t think that it helps the country,” Murkowski said.
Earlier in the day, Trump told reporters that Noem would not step down.
Walz, in an interview with CNN Tuesday evening, said it was “disheartening” that Trump continued to defend Noem’s performance.
“I’m not sure there’s been anybody more incompetent and cruel that has ever served in a Cabinet position than her,” Walz said.
In Minneapolis, where the high temperature was 11 degrees Tuesday, the mood among protesters, ICE watchers and community volunteers was one of cautious optimism mixed with doubt as they digested the news of Bovino’s departure.
Watchers continued their patrols across the city, coordinating in dozens of Signal chats and calling in suspected ICE license plates and reports of enforcement activity, including detentions, by federal agents. Protests continued, including plans for vigils Wednesday at the B.H. Whipple Federal Building just outside the city proper, where people who have been detained are held.
“I’m not optimistic,” said Steve Brackett, 41, a carpenter and community volunteer. “It’s sad, I usually consider myself an optimistic person, but the environment that the federal government has created here breeds paranoia and distrust. I don’t know if anyone here will really breathe easy until these agents are gone. Even then I’ll wonder and fear for wherever they’ll be deployed to next.”
During the late morning, an ICE officer tried to enter the consulate of Ecuador on Central Avenue NE. A statement from the consulate said “emergency protocols” were activated, and the minister of foreign affairs “immediately submitted a note of protest” to the U.S. Embassy in Ecuador.
Minneapolis City Council President Elliott Payne said agents then went to a nearby coffee shop, a haven for ICE observers. According to Payne, they threatened those inside, saying “We’re going to be back and arrest you all.”
Frey said that he and Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara both met with Homan on his first day in the city. “Public safety works best when it’s built on community trust, not tactics that create fear or division,” the mayor wrote in a post on X after the meeting.
On Monday night, Frey said that he had spoken to Trump and that some federal agents would begin leaving the area Tuesday.
Pretti’s sister, Micayla Pretti, in a statement shared by an Associated Press reporter late Monday, described her grief as “a pain no words can fully capture” and expressed exasperation. “When does this end? How many more innocent lives must be lost before we say enough?” she wrote.
The ICU nurse, who cared for veterans, was the third person to be shot by federal immigration authorities in Minneapolis this month.
In a remarkable filing Monday, Minnesota’s chief federal judge demanded that Todd M. Lyons, the acting head of ICE, personally appear in court Friday to explain what the judge said were repeated failures to comply with court orders during enforcement efforts in the state.
The order, which threatened possible contempt proceedings against Lyons, sets up another potential showdown between federal judges and Trump officials.
It was not clear Tuesday how Lyons would respond or whether Justice Department attorneys would seek to block the order in court.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) on Tuesday also said that Lyons and other top federal immigration enforcement leaders should appear before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which he leads.
“Congress has a duty to oversee how billions in taxpayer dollars are being spent to secure the border, enforce the law, and protect the American people,” Paul wrote on X.
Goba, Viser and Brasch reported from Washington and Slater from Williamstown, Massachusetts. Theodoric Meyer, Victoria Bisset, Leo Sands, Jeremy Roebuck, Isaac Arnsdorf, Dylan Wells and Maegan Vazquez contributed to this report.
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