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Man and Shot Killed by Federal Agents in Minneapolis. Aired 3- 4p ET

Aired January 24, 2026 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:00:00]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Officials confirming that a 37-year- old Minneapolis man who Homeland Security says was armed, has been killed after an incident with federal agents during an anti-ICE protest in the city. It's not clear what caused the shooting but video posted online shows officers wrestling a person down on a sidewalk before what sounds like gunshot. And we do want to warn you that what you're about to see may be disturbing for some viewers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED). What the (EXPLETIVE DELETED). They killed him. Did they (EXPLETIVE DELETED) kill that guy? Are you (EXPLETIVE DELETED) killing me, dude?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And again that taking place while the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol commander says that shooting took place actually while they were conducting -- as they were about to conduct a targeted arrest. It wasn't necessarily the focus of a protest.

So this shooting in Minneapolis inflaming what's already a tense situation between authorities and protesters in the city. Federal agents have deployed tear gas as hundreds continue to gather at the scene of where that killing took place today. Minnesota's Governor Tim Walz is vowing his state will, in his words, keep the peace.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TIM WALZ (D), MINNESOTA: They think they can provoke us into abandoning our values. Well, they're dead wrong. We'll keep the peace. We'll secure the justice with our neighbors, and we'll see this occupation ends. Minnesotans and Minnesota law enforcement that continuously is being denigrated by this administration will continue to be the adults in the room, the professionals in the room, the decent human beings in the room that will keep the peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: I'd like to bring in now CNN's Julia Vargas Jones.

Julia, this is the second deadly shooting in Minneapolis this month, where you actually spent several days after the shooting of Renee Good, the fatal shooting of Renee Good. So the city's mayor, Jacob Frey, he is sharply criticizing the federal law enforcement presence as well as what we just heard from the governor of Minnesota.

What more can you tell us?

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that sentiment, Fred, has gone all the way down to most of the people that we're seeing in these videos out in the streets. It is remarkable how many people have come out in Minneapolis to say they agree with their governor. They agree with their mayor, Jacob Frey, there, and that reaction, what we're seeing today is completely understandable.

That video, again, very disturbing video, very difficult to watch there. But you can hear the narration of that bystander, his shock, his surprise as he sees those agents in this altercation with the men. Again, I will say we don't know what transpired before this altercation began. All we have is this video from this bystander. We see in this video there seem to be other people filming, so we hope that with those other angles we will have more information of what's going on here.

But this is of course causing so much shock and almost disbelief in the community. I had a member of the community text me this morning saying, how are we supposed to live like this? And I want to play for you also, Fred, the reaction of the mayor, the Democratic mayor, Jacob Frey, to this video, how he described it in his words. What he said, I believe we don't have that. But what he said it was basically that we have -- showing this incident he's saying that the more than six masked agents pummeling one of our constituents and shooting him to death.

Those very powerful words from the mayor there. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JACOB FREY (D), MINNEAPOLIS: I just saw a video of more than six masked agents pummeling one of our constituents and shooting him to death. How many more residents? How many more Americans need to die or get badly hurt for this operation to end?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Now, we also heard earlier today, Fred, from the police chief, Brian O'Hara. The video speaks for itself. We know that some of the witnesses that were in that scene this morning in Minneapolis, across that street, seeing that, were taken to the Whipple Federal Building. The chief also said a little bit more of information about this person who was shot. The victim there. He was a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry. They were not releasing the name, but he was 37 years old and a U.S. citizen.

I've mentioned to you before, I'll say again, you know, in Minnesota, you need to have a permit to legally carry a handgun in public. It does not have to be concealed. We encounter in our reporting in the past week, multiple people who were carrying their handguns to protests. And we don't know, as you mentioned just a few minutes ago, Fred, what was happening before this video started being recorded.

[15:05:04]

What we have seen is when ICE conducts operations, there is an entire network of people, activists who start following these DHS operations, these federal vehicles. They are blowing whistles. They're alerting their neighborhoods that there is an operation happening. Maybe, perhaps, this is a question. What was this 37-year-old man, a U.S. citizen, doing in the middle of what DHS says was a targeted operation?

I would ask the question, was he there trying to observe the actions of those federal agents? We've seen that in small neighborhoods. We've seen that near where Renee Good was shot, where the Venezuelan national was shot in the leg as well. It has been an overwhelming response from the community. A very clear message, again, resounding, ICE out now. That's what we heard earlier in our colleague Sara Sidner's live shot. That has been what we have heard from the community time and again.

WHITFIELD: Julia Vargas Jones, thank you so much.

All right. Back with us now is former Boston police commissioner Ed Davis.

So a lot has transpired since the last time you and I were talking here on the air. We have since now heard from the mayor of Minneapolis. The governor of Minnesota, as well as the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol commander, Greg Bovino. And I think you've gotten a chance to hear all of it.

So I'm wondering, you know, in your view, there are now conflicting, you know, conflicting imagery about what transpired there. While Greg Bovino says they were conducting a targeted arrest, going after a particular suspect, they were approached, an agent was approached by the suspect, a 37-year-old with a nine-millimeter semi-automatic firearm. When you hear from the mayor, he says he looked at the video and he sees six masked agents pummeling a resident and then shooting him to death.

And then you hear the governor, who is calling it very sickening. He says, and he's describing, this is a campaign of brutality against our state. And he says, thank goodness for so many -- a variety of angles of video of what transpired. And he sounds like he is disputing that this suspect was approached or detained or taken down in a lawful manner.

So what do you do with all these conflicting accounts? And this is just now hours after it actually happened.

ED DAVIS, FORMER BOSTON POLICE COMMISSIONER: Right. And I think that's exactly what the issue is here. We need some time to get this all coordinated and to get really clear information on exactly what happened. You've got the governor and the mayor and the police chief, who I greatly admire, speaking not only about this incident, but about a series of incidents that have accumulated into the frustration that you're hearing.

And it's certainly understandable they'd be reacting the way that they're reacting because they want to protect the people in their own communities. I would hope, and I said this earlier, I was hoping for more transparency on the part of CBP. Bovino said that a man, a man with a firearm approached them, but that doesn't really justify the use of deadly force. And so he basically said that we needed more time to figure that out. But I was hoping that a clearer statement of exactly what the threat was would be forthcoming at the very first press conference because the city is starting to burn.

This is not -- this is not, you don't have the luxury of waiting days to put this stuff out there. And I'm particularly interested to see the video from that young lady that was behind the melee in the pink jacket.

WHITFIELD: Yes, it looked like in red or something. Yes. Yes, dark pink, you know, kind of walking around.

DAVIS: Right. Are you searching for her?

WHITFIELD: So, yes. Why wouldn't Greg Bovino say or be more descriptive about whether this 37-year-old waved his weapon, brandished it, pointed it? Instead he was very careful to just use the word approached an agent. And we've heard from the police chief that he was, you know, a concealed weapon permit carrier. So -- and that message had already gotten out before Bovino was in that press conference. So what was not said is very curious as to why he wouldn't be more descriptive.

DAVIS: I totally agree, and I'm hoping it's out of an abundance of caution and wanting to be sure that they have the facts exactly right.

[15:10:05]

But in situations like this, people tend to telegraph the information that's beneficial to them and obscure the information that's non- beneficial. I hope that's not the case here.

WHITFIELD: What needs to happen right now? Because you also hear the governor who says his state, that city is left cleaning up the mess, meaning we're now seeing that state authorities, local authorities are on the streets to kind of contain or get ahead of any unrest that might come from protesters. The tensions are very high. You heard the commissioner of public safety say they were -- they went to the crime scene.

Federal authorities simply left the crime scene. And because the crowds were just so large, even state authorities felt like they had to leave. And, you know, and was quite perplexed by saying, you know, who leaves a crime scene? The federal authorities left the crime scene. What should be happening there?

DAVIS: Well, you can't just make a mess and walk away from it. In my estimation, this is really poor decision-making. If the city had said, let's get the federal agents out of there because they're a point of contention with the crowd, then it would have been perfectly acceptable. But the problem here is that there's no communication going on either before or it seems even during these incidents.

So if you're not a full partner in the decision-making process to go in and, you know, work in these areas and run operations, and you're not talking to the police beforehand and then you're saying, oh, we got ourselves into trouble, somebody come and bail us out, it's unfair to the people that get stuck with the mess afterwards. When you're out there in uniform, people don't differentiate. I hope they do in this case.

I hope they understand that local police are not prompting these enforcement efforts on the part of the feds, but they also have to maintain the peace afterwards, and that puts them at odds with the protesters. So it's an untenable situation for the governor and the mayor when the federal government isn't cooperating or planning with them.

WHITFIELD: All right. Commissioner Ed Davis, thank you so much.

We're going to take a short break for now as we continue to cover all the developments surrounding this investigation now on both the state, local and federal level as it concerns a 37-year-old man who was shot today by federal agents.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:17:30]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is when we show our resolve as a city because we're better than this. We are under attack by this administration right now, and this is not OK. It's just not. I'm a 55- year-old woman who lives in Edina, and I have to come in here and tell the world, like, we have to change this. This is not OK for our city.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: You heard similar type of frustration coming from the governor of Minnesota as well, saying it's a campaign of brutality against our state, talking about, and he referred to it as federal occupation of Minneapolis.

We're back now with our breaking news coverage out of Minneapolis. A 37-year-old Minneapolis man was shot and killed today by federal agents. That person is believed to be a U.S. citizen. The Department of Homeland Security said he had a handgun and approached Border Patrol officers during a targeted immigration operation.

The incident was captured on video from multiple angles and comes amid days of mass protests over the Trump administration's immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities. And this marks the third shooting by federal agents in Minneapolis this month. The second, which has led to someone's death.

Joining me right now again is former Boston police commissioner Ed Davis.

Thanks for coming back and joining us. So when we heard from the U.S. Customs Border Patrol commander, Greg Bovino, and he described there was a -- the agents were conducting a targeted arrest, he describes the person that they were going after, but then they were approached by this now 37-year-old man. They were approached -- an agent was approached with a nine-millimeter firearm. Again, very little detail about how this 37-year-old man approached the agents.

Bovino did not give any more details on that. However, he did kind of give more detail on the climate of things, that this shooting also takes place after a series of events where federal officers have been targeted, where rocks, bottles of water have been thrown at him, at them. And that has been a highly volatile situation.

What does that tell you about the approach that Bovino was taking, about spending less time on the incident that happened today and spending a lot of time on kind of describing the climate and how it has been very difficult for federal agents who have been conducting these kinds of immigration I guess methods?

[15:20:15]

DAVIS: Right. So I would say, well, welcome to my world. If you're a border agent and you're doing this, you know, that type of enforcement, and you're searching for people who are, you know, trying to get across the border and swimming across the Rio Grande or in the bushes, it's very dangerous work and very difficult work. And I have all the respect in the world, but it is not police work.

The police work that we do in urban areas involves dealing with crowds. I've had bottles thrown at me. I've had rocks thrown at me. I've had people get right in my face and yell and spit and everything else. It's part of our job to deal with that and to act appropriately, according to the Constitution and according to the rules of engagement with people.

And the problem that I can see here is that you're bringing this large group of enforcement personnel with little or no experience in urban areas, little or no experience in face-to-face demonstration tactics. And they're -- you know, they're reacting as you would expect. If the experience isn't there. And so the propensity to go to tear gas and pepper spray is very -- is very apt in this situation. Happens all the time.

And then the use of, you know, OC spray, spraying it directly into people's eyes, even after they're down on the ground, that kind of stuff would not be accepted in an urban police department. The officers would be disciplined if they did things like that. So it's a -- it's an experience issue I think that's happening here. And unfortunately, it's resulting in lethal force.

WHITFIELD: Commissioner, we're also joined by Jonathan Wackrow. He's a CNN law enforcement analyst and former Secret Service agent under President Obama. And glad you could be with us as well. What are you assessing here

now, as we look at the pictures, as we now assess the points of view coming from Customs Border Patrol as well as state leadership and city leadership?

JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Fred, well, good afternoon. You know, this is a -- this latest incident is tragic. But as I said after the last shooting incident, there was a high probability that there would be another critical incident involving ICE. And here we are. And the answer is fairly straightforward. When you have this surge of thousands of ICE personnel and supporting personnel engaging in this operation, and they're descending into this single area, really unknown to the Minneapolis community, the first order of effect is fairly simple.

When you have this many federal officers engaged in, you know, this targeted enforcement and support activity means that there's going to be a lot more enforcement contacts. That's direct contacts with the public. When you have more contacts, you have more incidents of, you know, reportable cases of escalated use of force. And in this case, here we are again, a use of deadly force.

And I think that, you know, when we get to this point, we need answers very quickly by all stakeholders involved. How did we get here? Right? And this this press conference that we had earlier left more questions than actual transparency or understanding of what happened in this incident. Again, we have another individual who seemingly was not part of the targeted immigration enforcement now dead on the streets of Minneapolis.

Again, the community deserves better. They deserve answers as to what is going on because the consequence here, Fred, is that we see this deterioration of public safety across the community. We see this disengagement of Minneapolis and Minnesota State Patrol from federal activity. As I always said, you know, law enforcement works better when they're working together across federal, state and local entities. They work in parallel and coordination.

Here we're seeing the consequence of that fracture. And actually it's just a seismic fissure that is pulling those entities apart. And we're seeing the consequence and the victims here are the people of Minneapolis.

WHITFIELD: So, Jonathan, what are some of the questions that you have after Commander Bovino's press conference? What were some of the questions that were raised for you?

WACKROW: Well, you know, again, it was really what were the precipitating actions of this individual and the ICE officers that were there?

[15:25:01]

We don't have clarity on, was this individual given verbal commands, were they told to, you know, stand back? We just don't have that. What we do know is from the video and witness accounts is that there was this, you know, physical struggle between the agents and the individual. And then at one point during that struggle shots were fired and this individual was killed.

But what we don't know is, you know, was that -- you know, was the weapon that the individual had, did they brandish it? Was there an actual intent to cause harm? Just because you have a firearm, that is, you know, lawful within that area, it's permitted and it's legal under the Constitution, doesn't make you an automatic threat. What was the moment that the use of deadly force was initiated?

What was that articulation? Why did that officer or officers feel that in the moment their life was imminently at risk? Again, that would have been really helpful. But what we saw was when the ICE officials were questioned, they backed off of that. They stopped the questioning. Why? Because they just didn't have the answer at this moment in time. And those answers are what the community needs right now because they need to understand what was the totality of this event.

Because absent of clear facts, what you will see is this, you know, further escalation and deterioration that could potentially lead into, you know, serious issues across Minneapolis.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jonathan Wackrow and Commissioner Ed Davis, thank you so much. Stick around for a moment.

We're going to take a short break as people continue to express their frustration and sadness. A 37-year-old man is now dead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:31:10]

WHITFIELD: All right, we're back now with more on the 37-year-old Minneapolis man who was shot and killed today by federal agents. That person is believed to be a U.S. citizen. The Department of Homeland Security said he had a handgun and approached Border Patrol officers during a targeted immigration operation.

Let's bring in now CNN's Julia Vargas Jones. We have more details about this 37-year-old man?

JONES: We do, Fred. We do. His name was Alex Pretti. He's 37 years old Minneapolis resident. This is according to law enforcement officials telling CNN now his parents, Pretti's his parents told the Associated Press that he worked as an ICU nurse. Now, again, earlier, we heard from Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara that he chose not to identify this man. All he said was 37 years old Minneapolis resident, believed to be a U.S. citizen.

So this is a little bit more information. There's so much more to come. Again, this is the man that we see in that video in an altercation with federal law enforcement agents. We see the agents approaching him, taking him down, and then we hear those gunshots. At least one gunshot on that video. Now, what we're learning, again, an ICU nurse, according to his parents telling the Associated Press and federal law enforcement officials telling CNN, Alex Pretti was this man's name.

Fred, I will remind our viewers this is, again, very difficult video to watch there. We don't know what transpired before. We don't know if or not agents -- how agents saw the handgun that we heard from the police chief earlier today and from DHS that he had on him, whether or not he held the gun at the time, if he brandished the gun at all, if they just noticed that gun on him in the moment of that altercation or in the moment, I should say, leading to that altercation.

More angles of that incident should be coming, looking to see those angles. We heard that from officials as well. Multiple angles exist. More of those are being investigated, looked at, to piece together what is it that led to this fatal shooting, now the second fatal shooting in Minneapolis in just in the past few weeks.

WHITFIELD: Yes. All right. Julia Vargas Jones, bring us more when you get it.

All right. Let's go now to the White House and senior White House reporter Betsy Klein.

Is the president commenting on this incident?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, we have heard from the president, but just taking a step back, we are witnessing this really remarkable tension between local and state and federal officials play out in very real time around this incident.

We heard just a short while ago from Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. He said that he spoke earlier today after this incident with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. He said he conveyed two very clear messages to her. Number one, he said the first request was to get these federal agents out of here. He said, second, that Minnesota will investigate this. He said that the federal government cannot be trusted on this investigation.

So a lot of questions as to how that is going to play out. But we do know that President Trump has been briefed on this situation. And he posted to social media a short while ago, he is here in D.C. today, spending a rare weekend in Washington. And later tonight he is going to host, along with the first lady, a screening of her documentary. So he is physically at the White House right now.

The president posting, quote, "The mayor and the governor are inciting insurrection with their pompous, dangerous and arrogant rhetoric. Instead, these sanctimonious political fools should be looking for the billions of dollars that has been stolen from the people of Minnesota and the United States of America. Let our ICE patriots do their job."

[15:35:09]

So the president there, as well as his Department of Homeland Security, making absolutely clear that they are standing behind the Border Patrol agent. They say it's an officer who has eight years of experience. And this incident, what took place here, no sign of de- escalation at this point. We also heard from Vice President J.D. Vance. He's accusing local

leadership of refusing requests for coordination with federal law enforcement on the ground. And Stephen Miller, who's the architect of President Trump's immigration policy, he called the person who was shot a domestic terrorist who tried to assassinate federal law enforcement.

Bovino, the U.S. Border Patrol commander at large, said that he wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement. However, he did indicate that this situation is now under investigation, and it's going to take some time for that to play out. But one notable thing in some of the images that we are seeing around this shooting is that the Pretti here who has just been identified as the person who was shot, when he was approached, he was filming with a smartphone.

That is going to be absolutely critical to what happens in this investigation. It's not clear who has possession of that phone right now, but that is going to be a major thing for law enforcement to investigate as they try to figure out and piece together exactly what happened here. A very key piece of evidence.

Now, all of this as there is so much tension on the ground, this is the third shooting by a federal agent within the past month, starting on January 1st, the -- sorry, January 7th, the deadly shooting of Renee Good that prompted major protests. There was also a week later ICE shot of Venezuelan immigrant. That person was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. And now this incident.

All of this comes as President Trump is weighing his own next steps, including the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act. That is that centuries old law that allows a president of the United States to deploy troops domestically. We know that 1500 U.S. troops from Alaska have been placed on standby for potential deployment to Minnesota. We don't know whether the incidents of the past several hours changed the president's thinking on how he will move forward or not with that -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: OK. And as you said, that 37-year-old Pretti's cell phone, who has possession of that and when that will be viewed, any material on that. That will be key indeed.

All right. Betsy Klein, thank you so much. And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:42:27]

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back. A 37-year-old man was killed today by federal agents in Minneapolis. And there were a lot of witnesses. And now there is a lot of protest in the streets of Minneapolis.

CNN's Sara Sidner is there in the midst of it all.

You're talking to people. What are they saying? SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR AND SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I

mean, we spoke to one of the witnesses who happened to be inside of that donut shop, the Glam Dolls Donuts. He had come here as a person who himself had been detained by ICE, and they had to release him after he fought back legally. And he was very shaken, very emotional after what he witnessed here in the streets. A man being killed yet again, the third person in less than a month to be to be shot by federal agents.

I want to give you a sense of what is happening. You can hear protests. You can hear people standing up against the actions of the federal government here. But you can also see the sorrow that is also here. I'll give you a look at what they have now done for the man who was shot and killed this morning here by ICE, Alex Pretti. They have created a memorial, and I will remind you, when I was here during the George Floyd protests, they did the same thing.

The area in which George Floyd was killed, they created a memorial that is still standing today. And now there is a memorial here to Alex Pretti, who was killed by ICE officers. We also heard from the person who witnessed this, that the person that ICE was actually after was running and ended up running into the donut shop, and they locked the doors, and then people started whistling, saying ICE is here and came out to try and stop some of their actions. And it ended up in this, you know, this shooting and killing of Alex Pretti.

Now, let me take you to -- closer to the front lines. And we're going to walk towards, just past the donut shop. By the way, this area is well known. It's an eat street. That's what they call it, because there are so many different kinds of restaurants here, so many different places to eat, very multicultural here. It has been turned into an area of protest.

People are beyond angry. They're furious with what has been happening here, and they feel from some of the actions that have been taken and the number of ICE agents that descended on this community, three times, the number of police officers, even that Minneapolis has, they feel their city is under siege, and they're looking at ICE as the criminals, not the other way around.

[15:45:08]

That is how people feel after sort of going through all of this in the last few weeks.

Let's go up to the front here where you're going to see the crowd is growing there. There is no doubt about that. And if anyone thinks that this is going to calm down, they're incorrect. It is only growing. We heard from someone earlier today saying this is going to explode if the federal government does not get its agents out of the streets. They are standing. They have built some apparatus where they're pulling things in, like dumpsters standing on top of them, making clear that they want ICE out.

Mostly what we've been seeing today is cheering, chanting and yelling at the ICE officers who were here. Then you saw the local police and the state police show up, relieving the ICE officers, letting them sort of move out, relieving the federal agents who were here. And so you're seeing a little bit different of a scene because when the federal agents are here, there was a myriad of reactions from them with tear gas, munitions, less than lethal munitions that we're being fired upon the protesters.

For the most part, really, we've been seeing people say, hey, don't do anything violent, don't do anything that would provoke anyone. Only use your voice. And that's mostly what we've been seeing today. We did see a car that looked like it had gotten some tear gas inside. It looked like it started to catch fire. People were trying to bash into the car and someone said, stop, don't do that. Do not do any violence. They weren't. They were simply trying to put the fire out.

But that is the kind of crowd that you're seeing here. You're also seeing a lot of help from people. In many of these restaurants they are opening them up to protesters to try to help them if they've gotten a full -- face full of gas. So you're seeing a scene where it's kind of neighbors helping neighbors, but also people who are very angry and making demands that the federal government leave immediately, leave these streets and leave people alone.

We will see what happens, though, because the president has talked about the fact that he might try, and I think it would ratchet things up if he sent the military in. That would, I cannot imagine the reaction to that. But it will be a big one here in Minneapolis.

WHITFIELD: And I wonder, Sara, are you hearing from people who are reacting at all to, you know, hearing the Border Patrol's explanation that Pretti had a weapon, approached a federal agent with a weapon? Again, we're not hearing any better description besides that. Of these eyewitnesses, people who were in the area, did anyone see or give an account of what they saw before that videotape that everyone else has seen was rolling?

SIDNER: No, they did not see -- they could not hear and see the person I talked to because they were inside of the donut shop, so they couldn't hear all that was being said on the ground. They could only see what they could see from their vantage point.

I will tell you this. The video, you know, obviously has riled people. There are people looking at the video saying it appeared that they had taken the gun off of him before they ended up shooting him, and that has really riled people. What you are also hear in every single scenario is they simply do not believe a word that comes out of the federal government's mouth, partly because of some of the inconsistencies that they have seen throughout this.

And immediately, for example, not going forward with an investigation into the officer who shot Renee Good and killed Renee Good. So you're seeing people say, we don't care what they say, we care what they do and what they want them to do is leave.

WHITFIELD: And then, Sara, are people saying and vowing that they are simply going to stay in the streets as long as they can? Because while we heard from the police chief of Minneapolis say, you know, we'd like for people to go home, stay calm. But he's also saying, you know, just don't burn down the city, don't harm our city, his words. What are people vowing as they continue to, you know, express frustration? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here comes tear gas, guys.

SIDNER: Yes. I think what you're going to see is people here, there is, there's -- there is concern. People are laughing. He said there's some tear gas. Let me turn around and show you what he's referring to. He thought that this was tear gas, which is what it looks like, but it's actually a bonfire that has been started in the street because it is freezing here. And that's how people are trying to deal with these really, really dangerously cold temperatures.

But as far as listening to what local authorities say, oh, please, you know, don't create violence, we are literally seeing people here say, hey, stopping anyone who they think is going to do something that is violent.

[15:50:11]

I've heard it myself, and say, stop, stop, stop. And then the person will say, no, no, no, no, I'm doing this. So there is an effort on the part of the protesters not to do things like the governor or mayor saying, you know, don't burn down the city. That is not the plan here amongst the protesters that I have listened to for the past several hours. But their plan is to stand here in these streets and make their voices heard and to send the strongest message they can possibly send to the federal government, to the Trump administration, who they do not trust. They want ICE out of here ASAP.

WHITFIELD: All right. Sara Sidner, we're going to check back with you very shortly. Thank you so much.

And we're going to continue our coverage here of the death of a second person now in Minneapolis at the hands of federal agents. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:55:44]

WHITFIELD: All right. This just in to CNN. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi now says several federal agencies are on their way to Minneapolis in the aftermath of today's shooting of a 37-year-old Minnesota man by federal agents. Bondi says the federal agencies are going to Minneapolis to provide support to ICE officers amid the fluid situation in the area.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAM BONDI, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I know all of my federal agencies are coming in right now to support and back up Homeland Security. We have DEA, we have ATF, we have all of them, FBI, of course. All of my agencies doing what they can to keep the citizens safe if Walz won't do it. We sent Governor Walz a very strong letter today. We had been working on this letter. We got it out saying that he better support President Trump. He better support the men and women in law enforcement because if he doesn't, we are. And that's what we're doing right now. (END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN law enforcement analyst and former Secret Service agent Jonathan Wackrow is here.

What's going on here? What is this going to do?

WACKROW: Well, this is an escalation, right? And you know, what we said earlier in the hour was that, you know, more officers doesn't mean that it's going to be a safer area for the citizens of Minneapolis. Right? This is an escalation, not de-escalation. You know, and as I had said before, more officer activity by the, you know, federal entities just means more enforcement contacts on the street, which raises the specter significantly, that you'll have more incidents.

And, you know, tragically, you may have, you know, escalated use of force leading to deadly force again in the future. What we need right now is for all sides to actually, you know, stop and assess how do we make the environment safer? This is about public safety. It's not about political posturing. This is about ensuring two things. One, that the community of Minneapolis can engage in their constitutionally protected right to free speech and exercise that right wherever they want.

But at the same time, law enforcement, whether it's federal, state or local, needs to be able to engage in their actions unimpeded. Right? So how do you meet both objectives at the same time? The way you're going to do that, Fred, is by coordination of law enforcement. Unified public safety by Minneapolis police and, you know, Minnesota State Police engaging with their federal partners does not mean that they endorse the immigration policy.

What it means is that they care for the community at large and ensuring that there is an ability to exercise free speech while maintaining order around federal law enforcement operations. Listen, you don't have to agree with what the federal government is doing, but you can't impede anything that is going on. But if we see an escalation on both sides or we see a departure or a disengagement of law enforcement, the consequences here are significant.

Lives are at stake, and you're going to see further tailspin in, you know, deteriorating environment in Minneapolis. And that is unnecessary at this time. There needs to be, you know, clear voices, you know, coming together to see how two objectives can happen at the same time, even if you disagree, you know, from a public safety standpoint only.

WHITFIELD: Jonathan Wackrow, thank you so much.

WACKROW: Thanks, Fred.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

WHITFIELD: All right. Hello, again, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Thank you so much for being with us. This breaking news into CNN as tensions continue to skyrocket in

Minneapolis, Minnesota, we're learning new details about the man killed in this morning's shooting by a federal agent. State and federal officials have identified the man as 37-year-old Alex Pretti. Homeland Security says Pretti, who is believed to be an American citizen, was armed during an incident with federal agents claiming he was trying to, quote, "massacre law enforcement," end quote.

But it's not clear what prompted the shooting. Video posted online shows officers wrestling a man down onto the ground before what sounds like gunshots being fired.