My administration ‘reviewing everything’ after fatal shooting of Minneapolis nurse- Trump

U.S. President Donald Trump said his administration is “reviewing everything” following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti by immigration agents in Minneapolis on Saturday.

In his remarks to the Wall Street Journal, Trump mentioned that he planned to eventually pull agents out of the city, though he didn’t specify when.

Protests carried on in Minneapolis and several other US cities on Sunday, as Minnesota Governor Tim Walz cautioned that the country was at an “inflection point”.

The facts surrounding the incident—the second fatal shooting of a US citizen by agents in recent weeks—have been fiercely disputed, sparking a new clash between state and federal officials.

The administration has defended the officer who shot Pretti. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti was shot because he was “brandishing” a gun.

Local authorities deny this, adding that the gun was legally registered and that Pretti was shot after the firearm was removed.

Pretti’s family also explained he owned a handgun and had a permit to carry a concealed handgun in Minnesota – but they had never known him to carry it.

Local police have said he was a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry. It is legal in Minnesota to carry a handgun in public if the owner has a permit.

Federal agents shot and killed Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday, and videos have since emerged showing a scuffle between Border Patrol agents and Pretti just before the shooting.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the agents fired in self-defence after Pretti, who they say had a handgun, resisted their attempts to disarm him.

Eyewitnesses, local officials and the victim’s family have challenged that account, pointing out he had a phone in his hand, not a weapon.

There is no sign of a gun in Pretti’s hand, according to analysis of the available video by BBC Verify.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump was directly asked twice whether the agent had done the right thing during the incident. He responded: “We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination.”

He also told the newspaper: “I don’t like any shooting. I don’t like it.” He added: “But I don’t like it when somebody goes into a protest and he’s got a very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines loaded up with bullets also. That doesn’t play good either.”

The Trump administration is facing pressure from some prominent Republicans, who have joined opposition Democrats in calling for a wide-ranging investigation.

The terms of the investigation became a sticking point in the case of Renee Good, who was the first US citizen shot dead by a federal agent in Minneapolis earlier this month. The incident is being looked into by the FBI, after Minnesota officials withdrew amid a row with federal personnel.

It appears that another dispute could unfold during the probe into the second fatal shooting. On Sunday, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told the BBC that state officers were blocked from accessing the scene by federal agents, despite securing a search warrant.

He added that all levels of law enforcement in Minnesota had been working with federal law enforcement “for several years”, and that the unfolding situation in Minnesota was hampering agencies’ ability to continue such investigations.

US Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino previously said that at the time of the shooting, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were looking for a man named Jose Huerta Chuma during a “targeted” operation, and that Chuma’s criminal history includes domestic assault, intentional infliction of bodily harm and disorderly conduct.

The Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) has since rebutted those claims and said that Huerta had never been in Minnesota DOC custody and public records reflected only misdemeanour-level traffic offences from more than a decade ago.