Minneapolis mourns nurse Alex Pretti fatally shot by federal immigration officers

Some held candles and some flowers as people sang and a brass band played at the spot where ICU Nurse Pretti.

Pretti was 37 when immigration agents fatally shot him in the US city of Minneapolis on Saturday.

Harmonie Pirius, a registered nurse in the city, said she had been feeling depressed, heartbroken and enraged and she thought it would be good to get together with other medical professionals.

“It could have been any of us,” she said. “I mean he was trying to help someone, and that’s kind of what we’re all about.”

The fatal shooting over the weekend of the Minneapolis man has prompted calls for a thorough independent investigation into the second death at the hands of federal immigration officers since the Trump administration began its large-scale operation in the city late last year.

President Trump seemed to signal a willingness to ease tensions in Minneapolis, but there was little evidence Wednesday of any significant changes following weeks of harsh rhetoric and clashes with protesters.

Somali immigrants living in the state of Minnesota have long been the targets of harsh rhetoric and insults from President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar spoke to journalists one day after a man attacked her during a town hall meeting by squirting an unknown substance at her as she denounced the Trump administration.

“What is unfolding in our state is not accidental. It is part of a coordinated effort to target Black and brown, immigrant and Muslim communities through fear, racial profiling and intimidation," Omar said. "This administration’s immigration agenda is not about law enforcement — it is about making people feel they do not belong.”

Omar is an American citizen who fled her birthplace, Somalia, with her family aged 8 as a civil war tore apart the country.

Minnesota's Minneapolis-Saint Paul area is home to about 84,000 people of Somali descent — nearly a third of Somalis living in the US.