Trump calls Alex Pretti 'agitator' and 'insurrectionist'

By Kanyshai Butun

ISTANBUL (AA) - US President Donald Trump has stated that Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse who was killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Jan. 24, displayed "abuse and anger."

Trump referred to Pretti as "an agitator" and "insurrectionist," citing a newly released video of him confronting federal immigration officers on a Minneapolis street 11 days before being fatally shot in another encounter with Customs and Border Protection agents.

A newly released video shows Pretti "screaming and spitting" at the "calm and under control" ICE officer, Trump stated.

“Agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist, Alex Pretti’s stock has gone way down with the just released video of him screaming and spitting in the face of a very calm and under control ICE Officer, and then crazily kicking in a new and very expensive government vehicle, so hard and violent, in fact, that the taillight broke off in pieces,” he stated on his social media platform Truth Social on Thursday.

“It was quite a display of abuse and anger, for all to see, crazed and out of control. The ICE Officer was calm and cool, not an easy thing to be under those circumstances!” he added.

- Fatal shooting of Alex Pretti

Protests against ICE operations and shootings by federal immigration agents have taken place for more than a month across the state.

Tensions have escalated in Minnesota following the deaths of Renee Nicole Macklin Good, a mother of three, and Pretti, who were fatally shot in separate incidents involving ICE agents in Minneapolis this month.

Good was killed on Jan. 7 while near a protest site. Less than three weeks later, Pretti was shot amid a protest.

US Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti in south Minneapolis on Saturday during a federal immigration enforcement surge.

Senior Trump administration officials quickly framed the killing as a justified response to an armed and violent attacker.

Bystander videos, sworn witness statements, and accounts from medical professionals, however, tell a sharply different story, suggesting Pretti was disarmed, restrained, and shot while pinned to the ground.

Federal officials labeled Pretti a “domestic terrorist” and a “would-be assassin,” yet have released no evidence to support claims that he intended to harm officers or commit ideologically motivated violence.

Video footage instead shows a man holding a cellphone, immobilized on the pavement, before being shot multiple times.