Two federal agents involved in the shooting death of Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti over the past weekend were placed on administrative leave on Jan. 24 after the incident, a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokesperson said on Jan. 28.
This was “standard protocol,” the spokesperson told The Epoch Times.
CBP and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees both CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), did not provide further details.
Two CBP agents shot and killed Pretti, 37, during an incident on Jan. 24. He was the second person to be killed by federal agents as the Trump administration carries out an operation to detain and remove illegal immigrants in the Twin Cities area.
A CBP report on the shooting was provided to Congress earlier this week, according to media reports. Neither CPB nor the DHS commented on the report to The Epoch Times.
In the immediate aftermath of the incident, officials had said that Pretti had brandished a firearm at a protest and had brought a gun with him when he confronted federal officers who were trying to arrest an illegal immigrant who had a criminal record.
Pretti’s shooting and another fatal shooting on Jan. 7 of Renee Good by an ICE agent, as she allegedly drove her SUV at him, has triggered controversy over the Trump administration’s operation. Daily protests are ongoing, with some riots taking place as demonstrators and agitators attempt to obstruct agents from detaining illegal immigrants.
Local Democrat officials and congressional members have blamed the Trump administration for the deaths, saying that, in both cases, the officers acted in an unjust, illegal manner.
Federal officials have said that the officers were defending themselves and noted that the protesters are organizing themselves and targeting ICE agents by adding them to online databases to find out their locations.
President Donald Trump said this week that he would recalibrate his immigration operation in Minnesota in the wake of the shootings and that he had spoken with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, both Democrats. He also said he would be sending in White House border czar Tom Homan, who met with both Frey and Walz this week after the pair had criticized the administration’s efforts for weeks.
“I told Governor Walz that I would have Tom Homan call him, and that what we are looking for are any and all Criminals that they have in their possession,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “The Governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future.”
On Jan. 28, however, Trump delivered a word of caution to Frey, who the president said was “playing with fire” after the mayor indicated on social media that he may not help in the enforcement of federal immigration laws.
Frey said in response that the Minneapolis Police Department is not designed to enforce immigration laws.
Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
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