- The late Pretti, a nurse killed by ICE in Minneapolis
By SCM Foreign Desk
MINNEAPOLIS — A federal judge issued an emergency order late Monday morning, prohibiting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from destroying or altering any evidence related to the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old man over the weekend.
The ruling comes as Minneapolis reels from its second ICE-involved shooting in less than thirty days, a development that has reignited fierce local opposition to federal immigration enforcement and raised questions about the conduct of agents operating within the city.
On Saturday, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen was shot and killed during an encounter with ICE agents.
While federal authorities have released few details regarding the circumstances of the confrontation, the incident has sparked immediate outrage due to its proximity to a similar fatal shooting involving the agency just weeks ago.
Community leaders and civil rights attorneys successfully petitioned the court for the restraining order, citing internal documents that allegedly depict a “disturbing culture of bravado” within the local field office.
According to court filings, one internal document purportedly showed agents “bragging” about the number of bullet holes they put in a previous target, identified in the files as “Pretti.”
”Should Not Be Walking the Streets”
The atmosphere in Minneapolis has turned increasingly volatile.
Outside the federal building downtown, hundreds of “Anti-ICE” protesters gathered Sunday evening, demanding the immediate withdrawal of federal agents from the metropolitan area.
”The fact that these agents are involved in two killings in one month, involving a U.S. citizen, suggests a total breakdown in oversight,” said Elena Rossi, an organizer with a local police accountability group.
“These agents should not be walking our streets armed if they are treating the application of lethal force as a point of pride.”
The judge’s intervention is a rare move against a federal law enforcement agency. By blocking the destruction of evidence, the court is seeking to preserve body-camera footage, internal communications, and ballistics reports that legal experts say are crucial to determining whether the shooting was justified.
ICE has not yet issued a formal response to the judge’s order, though a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security previously stated that the agency “takes all shooting incidents seriously” and is cooperating with internal reviews.
