At least six people have died during the Trump administration's intense immigration enforcement campaign in the U.S., the latest being a 37-year-old man who was shot by a Border Patrol officer in Minneapolis.
Federal authorities immediately described Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen, as an armed agitator who was a threat to immigration officers. But videos showed Pretti’s hands were only holding a phone when a masked Border Patrol officer opened fire on Jan. 24.
Gov. Tim Walz denounced as “despicable” the comments that federal officials made about Pretti.
Pretti, who worked as a nurse, was permitted to possess a handgun in Minnesota. In video of the shooting, an officer appears to pull a gun from Pretti's waist and step away. That's when the first shot was fired, followed by more shots. Pretti was on the ground when he was killed.
His death was the second in January in Minneapolis. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a woman who used her vehicle to block a street and was slowly pulling away.
Last September, Immigration and Customs Enforcement fatally shot a person outside Chicago. Two people have died after being struck by vehicles while fleeing immigration authorities. And a California farmworker fell from a greenhouse and broke his neck during an ICE raid last July.
No officers have been charged.
Renee Good, a U.S. citizen, was repeatedly shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis on Jan. 7. Videos show she was turning the wheels of her Honda Pilot away from officer Jonathan Ross when he opened fire. Trump administration officials have repeatedly defended Ross, claiming his life was at risk.
“I'm not mad at you,” Good, 37, said before Ross fired his gun.
Good's death caused a firestorm in Minnesota. The U.S. Justice Department said it wouldn't share information on the shooting with state authorities.
State and local officials subsequently sued to try to stop the immigration sweeps, which have involved thousands of federal officers. Protesters with whistles have trailed officers who, in response, have deployed tear gas and other chemical irritants.
ICE agents fatally shot Silverio Villegas González during a traffic stop Sept. 12 in suburban Chicago. Relatives said the 38-year-old line cook from Mexico had dropped off a child at day care that morning.
At the time, the Department of Homeland Security said agents were pursuing a man with a history of reckless driving who was in the country illegally. They alleged Villegas González evaded arrest and dragged an officer with his vehicle.
Homeland Security said the officer opened fire fearing for his life and was hospitalized with “serious injuries.” However, local police videos showed the agent walking around and dismissing his own injuries as “nothing major.”
Homeland Security has said the death remains under investigation.
Authorities were rounding up dozens of farmworkers July 10 at Glass House Farms in southern California when Jaime Alanis fell from the roof of a greenhouse and broke his neck. The 57-year-old laborer from Mexico died at a hospital two days later.
Relatives said Alanis had spent a decade working at the farm, a licensed cannabis grower that also produces tomatoes and cucumbers in Camarillo, about an hour east of Los Angeles. They said he sent his earnings to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
During the raid, Alanis called family to say he was hiding. Officials said he fell about 30 feet (9 meters) from the greenhouse roof.
Homeland Security said Alanis was never in custody and was not being chased by immigration authorities.
A man running away from immigration officers outside a Home Depot store in southern California died after being hit by an SUV while he tried to cross a freeway on Aug. 14.
Police in Monrovia, northeast of Los Angeles, said ICE agents were conducting enforcement operations when the man fled to Interstate 210. He was running across the freeway's eastbound lanes when an SUV hit him and died at a hospital.
The man was identified by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network as Roberto Carlos Montoya Valdez, 52, of Guatemala.
Homeland Security said Montoya Valdez wasn't being pursued by immigration authorities when he ran.
A pickup truck fatally struck Josué Castro Rivera on a highway in Norfolk, Virginia, as he tried to escape authorities during a traffic stop on Oct. 23.
Castro Rivera, 24, of Honduras, was heading to a gardening job with three passengers when ICE officers pulled over the vehicle, according to his brother, Henry Castro.
State and federal authorities said Castro Rivera ran away on foot and was hit by a pickup truck on Interstate 264.
Homeland Security said Castro Rivera’s vehicle was stopped as part of a “targeted, intelligence-based” operation and that Castro Rivera had “resisted heavily and fled.”
His brother said Castro Rivera worked to send money to family in Honduras.
Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. AP reporters Ed White in Detroit; Sophia Tareen in Chicago; and Michael Biesecker in Washington contributed.
A demonstrator wears a mask in front of an image of Renee Good during a protest to denounce the Trump administration's immigration enforcement polices Friday, Jan. 16, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Trump administration officials swiftly sought to portray 37-year-old Alex Pretti as an armed disruptor intent on doing harm to federal agents when he brought his own gun to a Minneapolis street where officers clashed with protesters over President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Video shot by bystanders and reviewed by The Associated Press appears to contradict some of those statements.
In their own words, this is what the Trump administration has said about Pretti and the circumstances around his death, and what is shown on videos of the shooting:
During a news conference on Saturday in the hours after the shooting, Border Patrol senior official Greg Bovino, the public face of the crackdown, blamed the shooting on Pretti, saying that it appeared that Pretti, an intensive care nurse at a VA hospital, “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” In a Department of Homeland Security statement, spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin used the same words.
At a news conference on Saturday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti had gone to the streets “to perpetuate violence. And he was asked to show up and to continue to resist by a governor who’s irresponsible and has a long history of corruption and lying.”
On CNN’s “State of the Union" on Sunday, Bovino said that Pretti “injected himself” into the crime scene and was “not there to document.” Bovino said Pretti came there “for a specific reason,” but said, “what that reason is, we’re going to find out more about that in the coming days.”
WHAT WE KNOW: Pretti was one of many protesters on Nicollet Avenue Saturday morning. In a seven-minute video obtained by The Associated Press that shows the moments leading up to Pretti’s killing, he and others are holding up phones, apparently recording officer activity. Protesters are yelling out at the officers. Pretti can be seen talking to an officer, who pushes him back to the sidewalk, but it’s not clear what he is saying.
Pretti can be seen with only a phone in his hand. No footage appears to show him brandishing a weapon, although the videos don't show every moment leading up to the confrontation.
Pretti is seen being held down by several officers when someone says “gun, gun.” An officer appears to pull a handgun from Pretti’s waist area and begins moving away. Then the first shot is heard.
Pretti was licensed to carry a concealed weapon.
Also Saturday, Bovino said that Pretti “violently resisted” when agents tried to disarm him.
Noem echoed that account, saying agents fired “fearing for his life and for the lives of his fellow officers.”
WHAT WE KNOW: The videos show Pretti stepping in after an immigration officer shoves a woman. Pretti appears to be holding his phone, but there’s no sign he’s holding a weapon.
Pretti moves between the two and reaches his hands out toward the officer. The officer deploys pepper spray. Pretti is seen turning his face away and raising an empty hand. The officer grabs Pretti's hand to bring it behind his back and deploys the pepper spray again, pushing him away.
Pretti is struggling next to the other protester when the officer grabs hold of Pretti and separates them. The officer is now joined by several others and they force Pretti to the ground as he struggles. An officer holding a canister strikes him several times.
A first shot is fired by a Border Patrol officer. There’s a slight pause, and then the same officer fires several more times into Pretti’s back. Multiple officers back off. Within seconds, Pretti is motionless on the street.
On Sunday, the Republican president in two lengthy social media posts said that Democrats had encouraged people to obstruct law enforcement operations, also calling on officials in Minnesota to work with immigration officers and “turn over” people who were in the U.S. illegally.
“Tragically, two American Citizens have lost their lives as a result of this Democrat ensued chaos,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social media network.
Vice President JD Vance also blamed local officials in a series of posts and described what was happening in Minneapolis as “engineered chaos” that was “the direct consequence of far left agitators, working with local authorities.”
WHAT WE KNOW: As a precursor for last year's surge of federal officers to Minnesota, Trump previously linked his administration’s immigration crackdown against the state's large Somali community to a series of fraud cases involving government programs. Most of the defendants have roots in the east African country.
Since Pretti's death, the president has continued that framing, but there have been no direct connections made.
On Saturday, Trump said in a social media post that there had been a coordinated “cover up” to distract from billions being stolen from the state. He accused Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey of “inciting Insurrection.”
After the deadly shooting Saturday, both Walz and Frey pointed to the thousands of Minnesotans who peacefully protested the day prior.
But Trump officials say Walz and Frey both repeatedly used inflammatory language, including Walz last year referring to federal immigration officers as “Trump’s modern-day Gestapo.”
On Saturday, Walz said he knew the potential to “further inflame” tensions was high but he suggested Minnesotans are keeping the peace.
“We want calm and peace and normalcy back to our lives. They want chaos,” Walz said. “We cannot and we will not give them what they want by meeting violence with violence. Minnesota and our local law enforcement, as you have seen, have done everything possible to de-escalate.”
Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a news conference at Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino walks with Federal agents outside a convenience store on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)
U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino stands during a news conference Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)
People gather near the scene where Alex Pretti was fatally shot by a U.S. Border Patrol officer yesterday, in Minneapolis, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
