WASHINGTON: US immigration agents may have breached “protocol” in Minneapolis before the fatal shooting of a nurse during protests, President Donald Trump’s senior aide Stephen Miller said Tuesday — days after falsely branding the victim an assassin.
The admission comes as Trump says he wants to de-escalate the situation in Minneapolis following the killing of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti during a protest against an immigration crackdown on Saturday.
Deputy Chief of Staff Miller, a powerful figure who leads Trump’s hardline immigration policy, said in a statement to AFP that the White House was now looking into the possible breach.
He said the White House had provided “clear guidance” that extra personnel were sent to Minnesota to protect deportation agents and “create a physical barrier between the arrest teams and the disruptors.”
“We are evaluating why the CBP (Customs and Border Protection) team may not have been following that protocol,” Miller said.
The White House later said that Miller was referring to “general guidance” to immigration agents operating in the state, rather than the specific incident in which Pretti was killed.
It added that officials would be “examining why additional force protection assets may not have been present to support the operation” to remove undocumented migrants from Minnesota.
Miller also appeared to blame both the border agency and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for his comments on Saturday, which have since attracted criticism.
Shortly after the killing, Miller called Pretti a “would-be assassin” and accused him of wanting to murder federal agents.
But Miller said his comments were based on an initial statement by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who falsely said Pretti was brandishing a weapon when he approached federal agents.
Video evidence later showed that the victim was not holding a gun at the time. Pretti had a sidearm on him, but agents had already removed it before he was shot multiple times at point-blank range.
“The initial statement from DHS was based on reports from CBP on the ground,” Miller said in his statement.
Two officers fired guns in Minneapolis killing, govt report says
Two federal officers fired their weapons during the fatal shooting of Pretti in Minneapolis, according to a Department of Homeland Security report to Congress published Tuesday by US media.
The initial report says a US Border Patrol officer yelled, “He’s got a gun” multiple times as agents struggled with Pretti on an icy Minneapolis street, moments before two agents opened fire.
“Approximately five seconds later, a (Border Patrol agent) discharged his CBP-issued Glock 19 and a (Customs and Border Protection officer) also discharged his CBP-issued Glock 47 at Pretti,” the report says.
The report does not say whether bullets from both officers hit Pretti, and does not specify how many shots were fired.
It makes no mention of whether Pretti brandished his gun, as Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem suggested in the aftermath of the shooting.
Video footage from witnesses showed Pretti holding his phone and filming agents before he was sprayed by a chemical irritant and taken to the ground by federal agents.
The footage showed one agent pull a gun from Pretti’s waist before the officers opened fire.
The report says a Border Patrol agent after the shooting said he had Pretti’s gun and “subsequently cleared and secured Pretti’s firearm in his vehicle.”
DHS’s Homeland Security Investigations, the report says, is investigating the shooting.
