James' World 2

An agent had already removed Mr. Pretti’s gun when two other agents opened fire, shooting him in the back and as he lay on the ground. At least 10 shots were fired, killing him. Mr. Pretti had a legal permit to carry a firearm, said the police chief, Brian O’Hara.

The shooting on a frigid morning in Minneapolis’s Whittier neighborhood renewed protests and clashes with law enforcement in a city where tensions have reached a breaking point after weeks of aggressive federal immigration action. Federal agents deployed tear gas and flash bangs to drive demonstrators away from the shooting scene as they demanded that local police officers arrest the agents who killed Mr. Pretti.

Officials said protests in Minneapolis had remained mostly peaceful, with a few exceptions. But as dusk fell, officials deployed the National Guard to ensure that demonstrations did not turn violent. At least 1,000 people turned out for a vigil for Mr. Pretti in Whittier Park on Saturday night, despite subzero temperatures.

A colleague of Mr. Pretti, Dimitri Drekonja, said he had worked as a nurse at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Minneapolis. “He was a really great colleague and a really great friend,” Mr. Drekonja said. “The default look on his face was a smile.”

Here’s what we’re covering:

• Video analysis: Video footage posted to social media and verified by The Times shows Mr. Pretti stepping between a woman and an agent who is pepper-spraying her. Other agents then pepper-spray Mr. Pretti, who is holding a phone in one hand and nothing in the other. His weapon remains concealed until federal agents find and take it from him. Concealed or open carry is legal for permit holders in Minnesota.

• Federal claims: President Trump and administration officials declared without evidence that Mr. Pretti intended to attack federal agents. Gregory Bovino, the official in charge of the president’s Border Patrol operations, said that Mr. Pretti was intent on a “massacre.” Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary, said, “This looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage.” Their accounts directly contradict video evidence of the encounter. Read more ›

• Investigators blocked: Drew Evans, who heads the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said federal agents had initially barred state investigators from the scene of Saturday’s shooting. Mr. Evans said his agency took the rare step of obtaining a search warrant for access to a public sidewalk, but were still stymied. Federal officials eventually left the scene after clashing with protesters, but the demonstrations had grown large enough by that point to prevent state agents from investigating.

• Self-investigation: Federal authorities said the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE and Border Patrol, would lead the federal shooting investigation, with assistance from the F.B.I. But senior Homeland Security and Justice Department officials said it was already clear that Mr. Pretti and local officials were to blame.

• Minneapolis outrage: Mayor Jacob Frey accused the Trump administration of terrorizing his city. “How many more Americans need to die or get badly hurt for this operation to end?” he asked. At least two other people have been shot there by federal agents this month, including Renee Good, 37, who was killed on Jan. 7.

• “Force of good”: Accolades poured in for Mr. Pretti from those who knew him. Ruth Anway, another nurse who worked with him, described Mr. Pretti as a passionate colleague and kind friend with a sharp sense of humor. “He wanted to be helpful, to help humanity, and have a career that was a force of good in the world,” she said. 

Alex Jeffrey Pretti, the nurse who was fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday, graduated from Preble High School, a public school in Green Bay, Wis., in 2006, a spokeswoman for the school district said in an email. Mr. Pretti attended the University of Minnesota’s College of Liberal Arts and graduated in 2011, a spokeswoman for the university said.

Mary Moriarty, the elected prosecutor in Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, said in a video statement that her office, along with state officials, was “committed to conducting an objective investigation into this case.” She encouraged people with information that might help that investigation to submit materials through an online portal.

Five Twin Cities suburbs filed a legal brief on Saturday asking a federal judge to impose limits on how federal immigration agents carry out their work. The brief is part of a lawsuit filed by the state of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul that challenges the legality of the ICE surge and the tactics of federal agents. A hearing in the case is set for Monday.

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said in a statement that Senate Democrats would vote to block a bipartisan spending package that would fund the Department of Homeland Security and other parts of the government. The Senate is set to take up the measure, which includes $10 billion for ICE, ahead of a shutdown deadline at the end of January. “Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included,” he said.

The civil rights division of the Justice Department, which has historically investigated shootings involving federal law enforcement officials, is not expected to investigate the shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, according to two senior law enforcement officials who spoke to discuss internal decision-making. Todd Blanche, the No. 2 official in the department, made the same decision after Renee Good was killed.“This is not another vigil,” one speaker said at a large protest in Whittier Park in Minneapolis. “This is the damn turning point.” Many of the protesters marched in downtown Minneapolis on Friday and were protesting in subzero temperatures again on Saturday night.

David Guttenfelder/The New York Times