Protester shot dead in Minneapolis | Trump tries to play appeasement

(Minneapolis) After having defended the immigration police with as much virulence as he criticized the demonstrators mobilized against them, Donald Trump tried on Monday to play appeasement after the death of nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis under the bullets of federal agents.

In a message on his Truth Social network, the American president explained that he had “a very good conversation” by telephone with one of his pet peeves, the Democratic governor of Minnesota, the state where Minneapolis is located, the scene of numerous demonstrations against the anti-immigration police (ICE).

“We actually seem to be on the same wavelength,” said the Republican president about Tim Walz, former running mate of his Democratic opponent in the last presidential election, Kamala Harris, whom he has nevertheless continued to insult in recent weeks, going so far as to call him “retarded”.

The 79-year-old billionaire now says he wants to cooperate with the Democratic governor and specified that he would put him in contact with his special adviser responsible for immigration, Tom Homan, dispatched Monday to Minneapolis.

“I’m sending Tom Homan to Minnesota tonight. He hasn’t been involved in that area, but he knows and likes a lot of people there. Tom is stern but fair and he will report directly to me,” the US president wrote in another message on Truth Social.

The “border czar”, as he is known in the American media, is one of the main architects of the anti-immigration policy pursued by the American administration.

According to White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, Homan will not specifically address the shooting death of Alex Pretti.

Two deaths

But Tom Homan appears less exposed to the media than other figures in the Trump administration in the face of the emotion caused by the deaths in Minneapolis of Alex Pretti on Saturday and Renee Good on January 7, two American citizens shot dead by federal agents on the sidelines of mobilizations against ICE operations.

Conversely, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was quick, like other officials, to come to the aid of the federal officers involved while attacking the victims, without waiting for any investigations to be carried out.

Her management of events would be highly criticized at the White House, according to the American press, which also reports strong disagreements between her and Tom Homan.

The American president showed unusual, relative restraint on Sunday evening, telling the Wall Street Journal on the death of nurse Alex Pretti: “We are looking into the situation, we are going through everything and we will make a decision. »

The tone is different from that adopted for example by the very influential and radical advisor Stephen Miller, who described Alex Pretti as a “murderer”, in a message relayed on X by Vice-President JD Vance.

Justice sought

In a tense atmosphere since the death of Renee Good, a 37-year-old American woman shot and killed by an ICE agent in the same city on January 7, two court hearings are expected on Monday.

The first examines a lawsuit to prevent federal authorities from destroying evidence in the investigation into the death of Alex Pretti.

In the second, the attorney general of Minnesota calls for an end to the deployment of ICE in the state, which could set a precedent in the United States, David Schultz, professor of political science and law at Hamline University, told AFP.

Disputed version

As with Renee Good, the Trump administration placed the blame on Alex Pretti. The Secretary of Homeland Security accused him of “terrorism” because, according to her, he was preparing to endanger the agents with his pistol.

An analysis by AFP of videos of the event, however, seems to contradict this version. The images show the nurse in a snowy street, phone in hand, filming armed men wearing vests with the “Police” logo.

He intervened when an agent threw a demonstrator to the ground and received tear gas in the face. An agent tackles him to the ground and several of his colleagues intervene to handcuff him.

Read “Protester shot dead in Minneapolis: the video dissected”

Seconds later, as a gray-clad police officer appears to remove a gun from around the waist of Alex Pretti, who is kneeling and leaning forward with several officers above him, a shot is fired.

The agents suddenly move aside and shoot several times from a distance. At least ten gunshots are heard.

In a statement, the nurse’s parents accused the administration of spreading “sickening lies” about their son, “a being with a big heart.”