A top Border Control official has blamed Democrats and journalists for the chaos in Minneapolis following the fatal shooting of two protesters by federal agents, but dodged questions on whether the agency bore responsibility for the tragedies.
It comes after Alex Pretti was killed while helping a fellow protester Saturday. Footage captured from multiple angles showed how the 37-year-old ICU nurse was sprayed in the face with mace before being thrown to the ground by officers before being beaten and ultimately shot multiple times.
At a press conference in Minneapolis on Sunday, Greg Bovino, commander-at-large of Border Patrol, said: “When politicians, community leaders and some journalists engage in that heated rhetoric we keep talking about, when they make the choice to vilify law enforcement, calling law enforcement names like Gestapo or using the term kidnapping, that is a choice that has made their actions and consequences that come from those choices.
“When someone chooses to listen to a politician, a so-called journalist, or a community leader that spouts that type of vilification towards law enforcement or anything else… there are consequences and actions there also, I think we saw that yesterday.”
The administration has accused Pretti, who was armed and had a conceal carry licence, of wanting to “assassinate” the federal agents, despite video showing that he did not draw his weapon at any point. His killing comes less than three weeks after 37-year-old poet Renee Nicole Good was also fatally shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, shortly after telling him “I’m not mad at you, dude.”
Seemingly referring to those two incidents, Bovino continued: “Those actions and choices can obviously have tragic consequences, bad outcomes, outcomes that law enforcement never wants to see.
“Law enforcement never wants to see a bad consequence due to a poor choice.”
However, when asked if he or the Department of Homeland Security intended to take any responsibility for the fatal shootings, Bovino dodged the question, describing Pretti and Good as “suspects” who “assault, delay, obstruct or threaten a law enforcement officer's life.”
“It goes back to the choices that we just talked about when individuals make poor choices, poor decisions, come into a law enforcement situation, an active law enforcement situation conspire to come into that situation,” he said.
Asked if Pretti was unarmed when he was shot – since video appears to show one agent removing his weapon before another opens fire – Bovino said: “The investigation is going to uncover all those facts.”
The Independent has contacted U.S. Custom and Border Patrol for comment on Bovino’s remarks.
Meanwhile, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz gave his own press briefing in which he blasted the administration’s handling of the situation.
“You heard the most powerful people in this country… sullying [Pretti’s] name within minutes of this event happening and then closing the crime scene, sweeping away the evidence, defying a court order and not allowing anyone to look at it,” Walz said.
“This is not we need to see both sides. This is basic human decency. This family has gone through enough. And to have the most powerful man in the world drag their dead son with absolutely no evidence and gaslight the entire country. This is enough.”
He said: “We're no longer having a political debate. We're having a moral debate."
On Sunday afternoon, President Donald Trump posted a long message on social media calling on Walz and other Democratic leaders in Minnesota to cooperate with ICE. He also called for legislation to end sanctuary cities, where local authorities limit cooperation with immigration authorities.
Earlier his first predecessor as president, Barack Obama, spoke out about the latest killing by federal agents, saying “many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault” and labeling the shooting “a wake-up call to every American.”
He wrote: “Federal law enforcement and immigration agents have a tough job. But Americans expect them to carry out their duties in a lawful, accountable way, and to work with, rather than against, state and local officials to ensure public safety.
“That's not what we're seeing in Minnesota. In fact, we're seeing the opposite. For weeks now, people across the country have been rightly outraged by the spectacle of masked ICE recruits and other federal agents acting with impunity and engaging in tactics that seem designed to intimidate, harass, provoke and endanger the residents of a major American city.
“This has to stop.”
Later another former Democratic president, Bill Clinton, called the shooting “unacceptable,” saying: “Over the course of a lifetime, we face only a few moments where the decisions we make and the actions we take will shape our history for years to come. This is one of them.”
He wrote: “To make matters even worse, at every turn, the people in charge have lied to us, told us not to believe what we’ve seen with our own eyes, and pushed increasingly aggressive and antagonistic tactics, including impeding investigations by local authorities.”
