Chaos erupted in the streets of Minneapolis this morning as tensions boiled over in the aftermath of a fatal shooting by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Just hours after thousands of protesters had marched through the city chanting “ICE out,” a third fatal shooting by federal agents took place on a quiet neighbourhood street.
The 37-year-old victim, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, was gunned down shortly after 9am local time (2pm UK time). By the time our reporter Alana Loftus arrived on the scene around 10:20am, hundreds of neighbours had gathered around the perimeter, their anguished cries echoing down the street. “What have you done, what have you done?” one woman repeatedly screamed.
Within minutes, the number of ICE agents inside the cordoned-off area had more than doubled, emerging “like insects” and surrounding the growing crowd of protesters. Hurling insults and demands for the agents to “get the fuck out of Minnesota,” the protesters numbered in the hundreds, with one onlooker comparing the scene to the dystopian horror film “The Purge.”
Just before the victim’s body was taken away, tensions boiled over as a protester threw a snowball at the agents, who immediately retaliated by firing tear gas canisters into the crowd of unarmed bystanders. Thick clouds of white smoke filled the air as people ran in every direction, some fearing the agents had opened fire in the chaos.
“You have to keep going,” a stranger urged our reporter as she struggled through the stampede, a sentiment that seemed to capture the defiant resolve of the Minnesotan protesters. Tired and angry, but united in their refusal to back down, they are determined to stand firm against what they see as the heavy-handed tactics of federal immigration authorities.
