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Federal authorities revised their claims about how they killed an American. Officials initially called an ICU nurse in Minneapolis a, quote, "domestic terrorist" and would-be assassin. Now that video and other information contradicts that, a preliminary report says something else. The report says what Minnesotans were doing on that street Saturday morning before the video footage that many Americans have seen.
According to the government, two women were standing on the street. That's it. Standing on the street. Alex Pretti was not one of them. Allegedly, the women refused to move, though video shows otherwise. Agents approached. They claim Pretti resisted arrest, and after somebody shouted gun, two agents repeatedly shot him. That's the latest account from the Department of Homeland Security. In a moment, we'll hear from a former secretary of that department. We begin in Minneapolis with NPR's Meg Anderson.
MEG ANDERSON, BYLINE: At the intersection where Alex Pretti died, the grief of this community is palpable. This street is normally a place where people gather to celebrate the diversity of Minneapolis. There's a halal market, banh mi store, a German beer garden. But people here now are standing quietly in the road. The street has become a makeshift memorial. It's filled with flowers, candles and signs. One reads, we will carry on your work, Alex. People barely raise their voices above a whisper.
JOEL REESE: I see peace and sorrow, hope and sadness all at once.
ANDERSON: Joel Reese (ph) made a pilgrimage to the site for the first time on Tuesday, like so many fellow Minnesotans, to feel...
REESE: A sense of connection to others, a sense of hope, a sense of how we're going to move forward, how we can get ICE out of Minnesota.
ANDERSON: That sentiment, to get immigration officers out of the state, is what so many Minnesotans are still saying.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #1: Quit your jobs.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #2: Go home. Leave.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #1: No one wants you here.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #2: You losers.
ANDERSON: A few miles south by the airport, outside the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, protesters boo and jeer every time a car, most of them with masked drivers, leaves this concrete brutalist building.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #2: Get out.
ANDERSON: This is headquarters for the operation here in Minneapolis, which is why KS is here, heavily bundled against the cold.
KS: Blood has been shed here. People are angered here. We are not going to stop until they have left, until ICE, in general, throughout the country has stepped aside, because it's not just happening in Minnesota. It's happening all over the country.
ANDERSON: KS asked NPR to only use her initials because she works for the state and is worried about retaliation from the federal government. But the strained relationship between the state and federal officials seems like it's improving. In a statement, Governor Tim Walz said yesterday that he spoke with border czar Tom Homan, who is now in charge here. They agreed to work together toward investigating the two killings of citizens in Minnesota, both Pretti's and the January 7 killing of Renee Macklin Good. Walz also said he and Homan would work toward a, quote, "swift and significant reduction" in the number of federal forces in the state. But it's not clear whether the number of agents will decrease enough for the situation to change.
JULIE PROKES: I'll believe when I see it, basically, when it comes to what this means.
ANDERSON: Julie Prokes and their partner, Meg Voyles, are set back from the main protest.
MEG VOYLES: We have a van, and we've got snacks, so...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: A lot of snacks.
ANDERSON: They've been at the Whipple Building protest every day for almost a week, overseeing a table of donated supplies.
PROKES: It's exhausting, and yet at the same time, it's also exhausting, not doing anything.
VOYLES: Same. Like, it's really hard. I'm a project manager for work, and it's hard to just hold a meeting and not know if one of your team members is going to get abducted the next day.
ANDERSON: And the situation is still tense here. Last night in the city, Democratic U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar was speaking at a town hall when a man tried to attack her, brandishing a syringe. He managed to spray a substance on her before he was tackled by security. Omar later said she was OK. She continued her town hall and said she would not be intimidated, a sentiment being felt a lot these days in Minnesota.
Meg Anderson, NPR News, Minneapolis. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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