NSS Weekly: Federal Agents Fatally Shoot Another Minnesotan

Transcript

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HOST: You are listening to North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live, a newscast about what it means to live in Minnesota, produced by AMPERS, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota.

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ANCHOR: This is North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live. I'm Chantel SinGs.

Another fatal shooting by an ICE agent thrust our state back into the nation's spotlight, just a day after tens of thousands of Minnesotans took to the streets protesting the presence of the federal agents. As reporter Xan Holston explains, federal agents shooting and killing 37-year-old Alex Pretti sparked a very different response from state and federal officials.

Jacob Frey: The invasion of these heavily armed masked agents roaming around on our streets of Minneapolis, emboldened with a sense of impunity. It has to end.

Xan Holston: Just weeks after the killing of Renee Good, federal agents in South Minneapolis have killed a second person, 37-year-old, Alex Pretti. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey spoke at a press conference later that day, condemning the shooting and describing what he saw captured on video by witnesses at the scene.

Jacob Frey: More than six masked agents pummeling one of our constituents and shooting him to death.

Xan Holston: In the video, Pretti is holding a phone in one hand. His other hand is empty. He attempts to help a woman after she's pepper sprayed and falls after being sprayed himself. He's surrounded and wrestled to the ground by a group of masked agents. At one point, an agent strikes him in the face multiple times with what appears to be a pepper spray canister. At this point, some analysts say an agent removes a holstered handgun from Pretti's waistband. About a second later, a single gunshot rings out, followed by agents firing nine shots into Pretti.

Jacob Frey: If the goal was to achieve peace and safety, this is doing exactly the opposite.

Xan Holston: Pretti's killing happened just one day after a massive downtown March and strike where tens of thousands of people flooded downtown Minneapolis to protest ICE actions in Minnesota. Marchers completely filled the streets chanting, singing and demanding that city and state leaders refuse to cooperate with DHS.

Nat Sound: And we show up in the 1000s on days like today to demand that I sleep Minnesota and never come back.

Xan Holston: Less than 24 hours later, that peaceful demonstration was overshadowed by the killing of Alex Pretti and a rapidly deepening confrontation between Minnesota and the federal government. Almost immediately following the shooting, the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, presented a very different story. Many say their narrative contradicts widely available video. On the X app, formerly known as Twitter, DHS posted a photo of Pretti's gun, suggesting he had approached agents with his weapon drawn. Acclaimed Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino repeated at a press conference later that day—

Greg Bovino: An individual approached us, Border Patrol agents, with a nine-millimeter semi-automatic handgun. The agents attempted to disarm the individual, but he violently resisted. Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, a border patrol agent fired defensive shots.

Xan Holston: Bovino further suggested Pretti intended to carry out a mass attack.

Greg Bovino: This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.

Xan Holston: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem also doubled down on claims that Pretti posed a direct threat to agents.

Kristi Noem: This individual went and impeded their law enforcement operations, attacked those officers, had a weapon on him and multiple dozens of rounds of ammunition, wishing to inflict harm on these officers, coming brandishing like that.

Xan Holston: In videos reviewed by North Star Stories, Pretti is never seen holding or brandishing a firearm. Pretti was a registered nurse who worked in the ICU at the Minneapolis VA hospital caring for critically ill military veterans. He had no criminal record and was legally permitted to carry a firearm in Minnesota. The shooting and the response from DHS and Border Patrol has prompted sharp criticism from Second Amendment advocates, including the National Rifle Association and the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus. In a statement on X, the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus said, "Lawfully carrying a firearm is not grounds for lethal force," and called the killing "an unjustified use of deadly force against a lawful gun owner." Tensions at the site of Pretti's shooting continued to rise throughout the day. Shortly after the shooting, two women bit federal officers, according to multiple news sources. One is accused of biting off the tip of an agent's finger. Both are charged with assaulting a US Border Patrol agent. But the clash wasn't limited to protesters. As the day went on, it spread into a direct power struggle between state and federal authorities. When the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, or BCA, arrived on the scene to gather evidence and start their investigation, federal agents denied them access.

Drew Evans: When our team arrived, they were blocked by federal agents with the Department of Homeland Security.

Xan Holston: The BCA investigates just about every police shooting in the state. BCA superintendent Drew Evans said they returned with a search warrant signed by a judge, but were again denied access. The BCA was also denied access to the scene at Renee Good's shooting earlier this month. After a tense hours-long standoff, federal agents eventually withdrew. According to Evans, the site was—

Drew Evans: Overrun with protesters in the area and we were not able to re-examine that scene.

Xan Holston: By evening, Minnesota's National Guard was deployed to establish a security perimeter around the area. The Minnesota Attorney General's Office, on behalf of the BCA and the Hennepin County Attorney's Office, has now filed a federal lawsuit seeking immediate access to evidence and to prevent its destruction. According to White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, multiple federal agencies are conducting their own investigations.

Karoline Leavitt: The Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI have teamed up for an investigation, and there's also an internal CBP investigation and internal review of what is happening on the ground in Minnesota.

Xan Holston: Asked if the agencies would coordinate with local authorities, Leavitt said President Trump told Governor Tim Walz he would have discussions about it, but made no commitment to share information or evidence. As legal and political pressure mounts, federal authorities reshuffled leadership overseeing enforcement operations in Minnesota, reassigning border patrol commander Greg Bovino and replacing him with Trump's border czar Tom Homan. For North Star Stories. I'm Xan Holston.

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ANCHOR: In response to the killing of Alex Pretti, Minnesota leaders pressed federal officials for de-escalation. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Governor Tim Walz both talked with the White House. Governor Walz says he stressed Minnesota has three priorities. An impartial investigation into the Minneapolis shootings involving federal agents. A swift reduction in the number of federal forces in Minnesota. And, an end to what he called a campaign of retribution against our state. Meanwhile, the state and federal government continue to battle it out in court about the tenth amendment—states' rights versus federal rights. And with officials in Washington originally saying federal agents shot and killed Pretti because he had a gun, the week's events also sparked major debates about the Second Amendment—the right to possess and carry weapons.

I'm Chantel SinGs, and I'm joined by Lynne Torgerson, a top Second Amendment lawyer. She's won gun rights cases in 42 different counties in the state of Minnesota, as well as the Minnesota Court of Appeals and the Federal Court. She also practices criminal defense. Thank you so much, Lynne, for joining us here on North Star Stories. In Minnesota, what are the rights and responsibilities of armed civilians when interacting with law enforcement at a protest, especially if officers are masked or not clearly identifiable?

Lynne Torgerson: Thank you for having me. There's law on Second Amendment and there's law on self-defense. Second Amendment states that we have a right to keep and bear arms. Keep means to possess. Bear means to carry. And carry means in public. So there's no specific case law that applies to the situation presented, right? There's no exact case that we can go and read and it says this is what everybody can and can't do. So we have to take the general laws that we have and then apply them to specific situations.

ANCHOR: You know, it would be nice to touch on this specific case. There's so much involved that it can be, I think, a little confusing.

Lynne Torgerson: A person cannot resist an unlawful arrest. It's not allowed, and people may disagree on whether that's, you know, appropriate law or not, but that is the law. Even if a law enforcement officer is not being reasonable, a person cannot physically resist them, and it is a crime to physically interfere with a law enforcement officer in the operation of his duties or physically resist. This is a very sensitive situation. People are going to have differing views.

ANCHOR: And here's a question that I'd like to pose. Do we not have the right to carry a weapon with a permit to protest? So is that not something that we have a right to do?

Lynne Torgerson: Yeah, people do have a right to do that. But if you get into a physical altercation with a law enforcement and it looks like you're going to pull your gun, they're going to shoot you. They're going to, I mean, that's just what's going to happen.

ANCHOR: Well, Lynne, it's been really a pleasure speaking with you.

Lynne Torgerson: Thank you for having me.

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ANCHOR: Next, thousands of Minnesotans are exercising their right to protest, while community organizations train people on how to respond during federal operations. But what's the difference between an observer, a protester, and an agitator? Reporter Katharine DeCelle has the story.

Katharine DeCelle: For weeks, our screens have been flooded with photos and videos of Minnesotans demonstrating against federal agents. Most of the protests have been peaceful. Some have resulted in property damage and violence. But in the chants, whistles and crowds, the lines between who's observing, who's protesting and who's causing trouble can be blurred, especially when some of the national media are portraying all protests in our state as violent riots.

Nat Sound: More violent protests in Minneapolis after a second ICE-involved shooting in just a week.

Katharine DeCelle: National news stories like that lead viewers to believe that all protesters here are violent. Recent protests outside Twin Cities hotels did turn violent and destructive. But the majority of protests in the metro area and around the state have been peaceful, and many showing up to an ICE raid aren't even protesting. They're documenting.

Ryan Perez: A lot of organizations do what's called legal observer trainings. And a legal observer is often told to shut up, to be quiet, take out their phone and record but not to be vocal.

Katharine DeCelle: Ryan Perez is with the organization COPAL, Communities Organizing Latine Action and Power. They help train people to document what ICE agents are doing.

Ryan Perez: We've seen protests approach where people get loud, hold up a sign, but they're not necessarily trained on what are the lines of the law when I'm in this space.

Katharine DeCelle: COPAL has trained thousands of Minnesotans to be constitutional observers, which Perez says is different than legal observers.

Ryan Perez: We created constitutional observers that have a role that is partly as a legal observer, but a vocal legal observer. So you'll have people trained that are seeing an enforcement that are yelling and asking for a badge number, asking for a warrant, and this, their constitutional right to do that.

Mira: People are really fired up right now, really not willing to just sit down and stay home with such an injustice going on, especially now that there has been somebody just openly killed on the street.

Katharine DeCelle: Mira is an organizer with MIRAC, or Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee. MIRAC is a volunteer-run organization focused mostly on organizing protests.

Mira: When we end up with a situation where many observers are on site of an ICE action. There have been many times where tear gas and pepper ball guns have been used on protesters.

Katharine DeCelle: Governor Walz has repeatedly urged Minnesotans to exercise their right to protest in a peaceful manner. In a press conference, Walz pleaded with Minnesotans to not give the Trump administration any reason to send more federal agents or troops to Minnesota.

Tim Walz: I feel your anger. I'm angry. If you protest and express your First Amendment rights, please do so peacefully, as you always do. We can't give them what they want.

Katharine DeCelle: Many peaceful protesters like Cameron worry that violent protesters and agitators make things worse instead of better.

Cameron: They're looking for a reason to escalate this, and as soon as there's some kind of incident of violence against an ICE officer, that's all they need as a pretext to ramp up their operations and potentially clamp down on our civil rights even more.

Katharine DeCelle: On one of the coldest days of the year, Cameron was among many people protesting outside the Whipple Federal Building in St Paul. The building is being used as a temporary space where ICE agents bring detainees, both citizens and non-US citizens.

Cameron: ICE is trashing the Bill of Rights, and there are many examples of that, detaining people, depriving them of a lawyer, detaining people for their free speech.

Katharine DeCelle: US Border Patrol Commander at Large Gregory Bovino at a press conference.

Greg Bovino: Calling law enforcement names like Gestapo or using the term kidnapping. That is a choice that is made. There are actions and consequences that come from those choices.

Katharine DeCelle: While Cameron says he's not willing to be arrested, he understands why some people are.

Cameron: I'm not advocating breaking the law or anything but I know when there's such urgency and such an egregious disregard for the law by an administration such as this one, some people feel that they have to go that far.

Katharine DeCelle: Cameron hopes his peaceful protesting makes a difference.

Cameron: I just want to stand here with my sign. Hopefully when ICE agents drive by, they'll contemplate the sign. I'm not their enemy. I just want to see a healthy, functioning society, and I think it's gone off the rails

Katharine DeCelle: For North Star Stories, I'm Katharine DeCelle.

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ANCHOR: Coming up after the break, federal officials have blamed the Somali community for massive misuse of state and federal funds and say that's why so many ICE officers are here. We'll take a look at the anti-Muslim environment that has created and what some Somalis are doing to combat that hate.

This is North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live, produced by AMPERS, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. I'm Chantel SinGs. We'll be right back.

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ANCHOR: You are listening to North Star Stories. I'm Chantel SinGs.

Next, Minnesota's Muslim community is facing unprecedented hate. We've seen everything from fraud allegations tied to childcare and mental health facilities, to what was billed as a national anti-Muslim rally in Minneapolis. A man even attacked Congresswoman Ilhan Omar during a town hall. Reporter Jose Ozoria spoke with members of the Muslim community about the rise in hatred and their hopes for the future.

Kristy Noem: It was never meant to be an asylum program. It was always meant to be put in place after an incident or an event on a temporary basis.

Jose Ozoria: That Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem briefly describing the Trump administration's plans to terminate Somalia's designation for Temporary Protected Status, a move considered by many, especially the Muslim and Somali community, as yet another action that creates a hostile climate for the Muslim community in Minnesota, largely concentrated in the Twin Cities area.

Maryam Mohamad: The reason is to justify targeting the Somali community. The reason is to justify deporting Somali people.

Jose Ozoria: Maryam Mohamad is a Somali American resident of Minnesota and a community activist. She notes that there's a very specific goal behind the negative climate the Somali community is experiencing.

Maryam Mohamad: The reason is to justify vilifying an entire community and tell the rest of the nation, hey, look, these people don't deserve to be here because they are criminals.

Jose Ozoria: The announcement by the Trump administration comes as immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota have ramped up in a state with the largest Somali population in the United States. On the heels of rhetoric, both locally and nationally, some say the community feels under siege. Maryam Mohamed—

Maryam Mohamad: There's people who are afraid to take their kids to school, even though their children are US citizens, because of their immigration status. And for young people, I can't imagine hearing the President of the United States call their people garbage. Feels good.

Jose Ozoria: Dr Jean Beaman is a sociologist. Her research focuses on race, ethnicity, racism and global migration. Dr Beaman points out that the current climate is rooted in recent and not so recent history.

Dr Jean Beaman: I think it's important to keep in mind that this Islamophobic or anti-Muslim rhetoric is not new. It's a long-standing part of our culture, of our history. And then when these sort of incidents pop up, these kinds of framing, these kind of narratives get reignited.

Jose Ozoria: Dr Beaman believes the current climate requires a direct approach to counteract.

Dr Jean Beaman: Contrary to kind of what we've seen at the national level in terms of, you know, framing and reinforcing these narratives of, you know, Muslim and Somali Americans as being dangerous. We do need local leaders, state leaders, to provide the counter narrative and to set a culture at a tone that this kind of rhetoric is not just that acceptable, but inaccurate.

Jose Ozoria: Recently, many Minnesota state leaders criticized the President for his rhetoric, including Republican State Senator Jim Abeler.

Jose Ozoria: In an era of media saturation, perception can easily become reality based on media coverage. Dr Danielle K Brown is a professor of Community and Urban Journalism. She notes the way a narrative can be formed.

Dr Danielle K Brown: There is a long history of creating a group of narratives that trend towards framing Muslims in a way where they are criminalized, where they are dehumanized, where they are treated as the other.

Jose Ozoria: And the specific voices that are platformed also play a role in how a narrative is formed.

Dr Danielle K Brown: Oftentimes, when we just source official sources, we get a master narrative that aligns with those who are already in power.

Jose Ozoria: Ifrah Mansour is an award-winning Somali multimedia artist and educator based in Minnesota.

Ifrah Mansour: My cultural identity has shaped my artistic vision.

Jose Ozoria: Ifrah seeks to use her artistic vision to tell a balanced and nuanced story of the Somali community.

Ifrah Mansour: Most of my work is about celebrating my own cultural heritage. It became imperative that I learned about my own culture, and once I started digging through it, I just found that there were so many untold stories.

Jose Ozoria: Ifrah says her role as an artist is clear.

Ifrah Mansour: My job is to extract beauty and to insert hope in people.

Jose Ozoria: In the current climate for Muslim and Somali people in the US, Ifrah describes the place art has in the discussion.

Ifrah Mansour: Art is a quiet disrupter. Is a way to shift people from this place of them and us.

Jose Ozoria: Both Ifrah Mansour and Maryam Mohamad are optimistic about the future of the Somali and Muslim people. This optimism is rooted in American history. Ifrah Mansour—

Ifrah Mansour: We are not the first communities to be targeted by our government. We will survive this. I'm very hopeful.

Jose Ozoria: Maryam Mohamad—

Maryan Mohama: Looking back at the successes of the Civil Rights era, I know that our fight will have legislation to prevent anything like this happening again.

Jose Ozoria: For North Star Stories, I'm Jose Ozoria.

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HOST: Taking a look at some environmental news, the Sax Zim Bog in northern Minnesota offers a glimpse into the ecology and the cultural significance of the region. Reporter Maija Hecht takes us to explore a world under the snow.

Hope Flanagan: I kind of think of it as like when you're in a playground and you defend your friend.

Maija Hecht: That's Hope Flanagan, Seneca elder and wild plant teacher who works with Dream of Wild Health. She's answering the question, what does it mean to be a friend to a bog?

Hope Flanagan: You have loyalty and support and recognition to how important that friend is to your well-being, and the bog is like that.

Maija Hecht: The bog in question was Sax Zim Bog, a 300-square-mile expanse of wetland in northeastern Minnesota that Hope has been visiting for years.

Hope Flanagan: I absolutely love going to the Sax Zim Bog just to see what's going on with the birds, what's going on with the plants, what's going on with the winter tracks. And I have a huge respect for Clinton. He's really good at paying attention to biodiversity and what the richness is of that area.

Clinton Dexter-Nienhaus: Look at that. It's very uncommon to get all of the toes.

Maija Hecht: Clinton Dexter-Nienhaus is the head naturalist with Friends of Sax Zim Bog, a nonprofit organization that seeks to preserve and protect this landscape. On that morning, visitors met at the Friends of Sax Zim Bog Welcome Center, an hour north of Duluth. They dressed in warm clothes, adjusted snowshoe fittings, and ventured out into a recently conserved section of boreal peatland called star flower.

Clinton Dexter-Nienhaus: And so we've got, obviously, a ditch here. And when all these ditches were put in, part of that was to try to drain these bogs for logging.

Maija Hecht: According to the Nature Conservancy, in the early 20th century, up to 1/6 of Minnesota's peatlands were degraded for forestry, agriculture or other uses. Today, those ditches continue to unnaturally drain water and release stored carbon.

Clinton Dexter-Nienhaus: A foot or two feet can change this whole thing completely.

Maija Hecht: Although peatlands cover only 3% of Earth's surface, they store around 30% of all the carbon on land. And Minnesota is home to more peatlands than any other state in the lower 48.

Clinton Dexter-Nienhaus: If we want to help keep carbon on the landscape, let's keep these peatlands intact.

Maija Hecht: Studies show that adding carbon to Earth's atmosphere intensifies climate change. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, human activity is accelerating the pace. What scientists don't know is whether plants and animals can adapt in time.

Emily Stone: How familiar are you with this subnivian zone?

Maija Hecht: Not at all.

Emily Stone: Do you think your listeners are? I feel like I should maybe explain that first of all, the word sub is under and nivian is snow, right? So it's this magical world under the snow.

Maija Hecht: Emily Stone is a writer and a naturalist at the Cable Natural History Museum. She explained that there is this little space—

Emily Stone: Between the Earth and this snow that kind of opens up a little bit because of the heat radiating up from the earth. So all the little beings who live there can still stay active all winter long. But there's a catch, you definitely need at least six inches of snow to have it come into existence.

Maija Hecht: With at least six inches of snow, a sort of natural igloo is able to form.

Emily Stone: The snow right at the soil surface then actually melts. So you end up with kind of this crystalline hallway network of spaces.

Maija Hecht: And in those hallways, the many bugs, mammals and plants that make bogs so biodiverse are able to survive the winter.

Emily Stone: It's like a treasure hunt, right? So you find tracks, and you know that some little being is down there, just living, hidden away from our eyes. And it really makes the winter feel more alive.

Maija Hecht: That temporary world has year-long impacts for ecosystem health, but the depth and duration of snow pack is changing with our climate. Visitors can learn more in January.

Emily Stone: At the end of January, I'm coming to Sax Zim Bog to talk about Anaamaagon, which is the Ojibwe word that means under the snow.

Maija Hecht: Not long after, Hope Flanagan will host a storytelling afternoon about that world under the snow.

Hope Flanagan: I feel like it holds a lot of secrets. Okay, here's an example. Louise Erdrich is a writer, and one time her youngest daughter and I were heading up north, and I said, you have to come see the bog. So I took her to the bog. We were walking and she says, "What is this?" And, oh, I said, "You're so lucky. You found the fruit of a creeping Snowberry." It tastes like a cross between wintergreen and peaches.

Maija Hecht: Before picking the berry, they offered tobacco to the plant, a gesture of gratitude called asemaa in Ojibwe-mowin.

Hope Flanagan: Many families used to have a collection of plants that would be passed on as part of their asemaa, their gift that they release when they go out in the woods.

Maija Hecht: Soon they were back on the road when Hope arrived with Louise's daughter. In Canada, they made a somewhat serendipitous discovery. As it turned out, snowberry belonged to her family's asemaa plants, the connection they had made that day was already a part of her lineage.

Hope Flanagan: This young lady may never had had a chance to ever see a creeping snowberry and then to know that that was part of her family.

Maija Hecht: Without protected places like Sax Zim Bog, those moments won't have the chance to happen.

Hope Flanagan: There's repercussions. I don't mean repercussions in a bad way, but wonderful repercussions of getting to visit someplace that's full of wonder and treasures and beauty like that.

Maija Hecht: Maya Hecht for North Star Stories.

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ANCHOR: Two special elections wrapped up, with Democrats winning open House seats in St. Paul and Woodbury. Those wins bring the Minnesota House back to an even 67–67 split, just ahead of the start of the legislative session. Once the two are sworn in, the Legislature will be fully seated for the first time since last June. The openings were created after the November elections shifted lawmakers into new roles. Lawmakers return to the Capitol when the session begins on February 17th.

As we wrap up today's program, we head up north as canine athletes and their human companions are competing in the 41st annual John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon. The nearly 300 mile race draws world-class mushers, who battle harsh northern Minnesota weather and rugged terrain on a course that also serves as a qualifier for Alaska's Iditarod. The North Shore tradition began in 1980. Organizers also host the Beargrease 120 mid-distance race through the Sawtooth Mountains, along with the shorter Beargrease 40. Spectators can visit.

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ANCHOR: That is all the time we have for today's program. If you missed any part of today's newscast, you can find this and past episodes at AMPERS dot org, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back next week with more stories and voices from the North Star State.

HOST: North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, diverse radio for Minnesota's communities, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. Online at AMPERS.org.