His last words, spoken to a woman who had been tackled to the ground and pepper-sprayed by nearby ICE agents, were “Are you OK?” Alex Pretti was an intensive care nurse at a VA hospital; those who knew him recalled, among other things, his devotion to his elderly dog, Joule, who died about a year ago.

In bystander videos taken of Pretti’s death, he can be seen holding up his phone to video ICE agents operating in Minneapolis, and waving cars around him to avoid the officers as they attack other onlookers. After he is dragged away from the woman he was trying to help, a gaggle of ICE officers surround Pretti and force him to the ground, beating and restraining him there as he struggles to free himself.

At least 10 shots appear to be fired within the span of five seconds. Pretti is splayed motionless on the asphalt. “What the fuck, they killed him,” a bystander’s voice can be heard screaming in one of several videos of the incident. “Did they fucking kill that guy?” Like his fellow Minneapolis resident Renee Good, who was also killed by ICE this month, Alex Pretti was 37.

Trump administration and border patrol officials immediately sought to cast Pretti, like Good, as a villain. After the US senator from Minnesota Amy Klobuchar posted on X about Pretti’s killing, saying: “Donald Trump and all your lieutenants who ordered this ICE surge: watch the horrific video of the killing today,” Stephen Miller, the senior White House official, replied saying: “A domestic terrorist tried to assassinate federal law enforcement and this is your response?” Miller provided zero evidence for the terrorism label or for the assassination attempt claims.

Kristi Noem, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, also described Pretti, a nurse, as a “domestic terrorist” without providing evidence. Meanwhile the border patrol commander Gregory Bovino, who wears an olive-green greatcoat that German media outlets liken to a “Nazi uniform”, said it “looks like” Pretti “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law........

© The Guardian