30 minutes agoShareSaveTabby Wilson,BBC NewsandAna Faguy,MinneapolisShareSaveEPAProtests continued in Minneapolis and other US cities on Sunday over the fatal shooting by immigration agents of 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti.Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said America was at an “inflection point” and repeated calls for US President Donald Trump to remove federal immigration agents from the city. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti was shot on Saturday because he was “brandishing” a gun. Local authorities deny this, adding that the gun was legally registered and that he was shot after the gun was removed.Trump has signalled that he might be willing to eventually withdraw ICE agents from the Minneapolis area but has not given a time frame. “At some point we will leave. We’ve done, they’ve done a phenomenal job,” he told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published on Sunday. Multiple vigils were held for Pretti in Minneapolis over the weekend. He is the second person to be fatally shot in the city during the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement crackdown this month.Lifelong resident Pege Miller, 69, was among those who gathered on Sunday afternoon to pay her respects and protest against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE). “I’m tired of protesting,” she told the BBC. “We can’t comprehend how this is happening. Why are we letting this happen?”Demonstrators of all ages were chanting “No more Minnesota nice – Minneapolis on strike” and “ICE out now” before they began moving through the city streets.”This is not the America I fought for,” said one man the BBC spoke to, who asked not to be named. Protests have spread to other US cities, including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.The chief executives of more than 60 Minnesota-based businesses, including 3M, Best Buy and Target have also signed an open letter calling for “an immediate de-escalation of tensions” and for local and federal officials “to work together to find real solutions”.Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told the BBC that state officers were blocked from accessing the scene of Pretti’s shooting by federal agents, despite securing a search warrant.He added that all levels of law enforcement in Minnesota have been working with federal law enforcement “for several years”, and that the unfolding situation in Minnesota was hampering agencies’ ability to continue such investigations. Lawmakers continue to be divided over the shooting of Pretti, as well as his second Amendment right to bear arms. It is legal in Minnesota to carry a handgun in public if you have a permit.The administration has characterised the Minneapolis operation as a public safety effort aimed at deporting criminals illegally in the US. It has also described Pretti as a “domestic terrorist”.Critics warn migrants with no criminal record and US citizens are being detained, too.Pretti’s family issued a statement in response to the comment, saying: “The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting”.They added that he had no interaction with law enforcement beyond a handful of traffic tickets. According to Associated Press (AP), court records show he had no criminal record.”Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man,” his family said in the statement. On Sunday, Tim Walz said: “I don’t care if you are conservative and you are flying a Donald Trump flag, you’re a libertarian, don’t tread on me, you’re a Democratic Socialist of America. This is an inflection point, America. “If we cannot all agree that the smearing of an American citizen and besmirching everything they stood for and asking us not to believe what we saw, I don’t know what else to tell you.”Backlash against the Trump administration’s crackdown is growing, including from within the Republican party. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt told CNN that people were watching fellow Americans being shot on television and that “federal tactics and accountability” had become a growing concern for voters.Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy said the Minneapolis shooting was “incredibly disturbing” and “the credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake.” Democrats have responded by threatening to block a key government financing package if it contains funds for the Department of Homeland Security, of which ICE is a part, raising the prospect of another government shutdown.Former Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have both criticised the situation in Minneapolis, with the former described events in Minneapolis as “h …
