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ICE Agents in Minneapolis Kill Second Person This Year. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired January 24, 2026 - 20:00   ET

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

[20:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: And good evening, I'm Erin Burnett. We're following the breaking news at this hour out of Minneapolis for the first time. We are hearing now from the family of the man shot and killed by federal agents there today. 37 year old Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse who worked at a Veterans Affairs hospital. And we're also going to play a newly obtained video for you which shows really the full breadth of this, from a new angle. A warning that the images you are about to see are disturbing. Let me play this in full.

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BURNETT: That sound you hear at the end was the first shot. And then that video cuts out. Homeland Security posted this image of the gun that they say Alex Pretti had on his person. He did not shoot it. They said that the man approached Border Patrol officers with it. It's a 9 millimeter semiautomatic. State and local officials dispute that. They also say he had a permit to carry it.

The family of Alex Pretti also disputes it and is speaking out now. In a statement, they say they are heartbroken and they continue to say that the sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump's murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman. ICE just pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed. Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.

What they describe in terms of what happened in the order is exactly what the video shows.

CNN's Tom Foreman is here to walk us through what we're hearing from federal officials, but also what the videos show, including the new videos, because what they are saying and what the videos are showing are not always the same thing, To.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, very much. I want to start with the very first statement made by the Trump administration in the aftermath of this shooting. It was a tweet by the Department of Homeland Security showing a firearm on what appears to be the seat of a car. And the tweet reads, an individual approach U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9 millimeter semiautomatic handgun seen here. You see the picture behind it there. This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement. Now, we have this new angle of the video that's just been cleared by CNN, and it shows the lead up to this deadly altercation.

This is what I want you to take a look at. Of course, this is disturbing video. Let's take some time, though, and watch this together. Some things to note. As it begins, you see Pretti out there in the middle of the street. He shows up right in this area here. You start seeing him, and he is at one point using his camera. There he is right there, and he's pointing to traffic, sort of waving traffic through. At some moment here, you see that law enforcement approaches him and he backs away as they start moving up on him. He is not trying to move toward them. He's backing away. Then you're going to see one of these officers approach a woman near him and really forcefully shove her to the ground right there. And Pretti starts rushing over toward her.

Now they're both getting pepper sprayed at this point. He gets grabbed and he's taken over to the ground here. I'll point out this is about 15 seconds from when officers turned to him. He's now on the ground. They are on top of him. The officers are all around. He does not appear to have a weapon in his hand. He doesn't brandish anything. He doesn't seem to do anything.

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And then all of a sudden, you see one agent in the middle there. Look, he turns away. And that's when the shooting begins. One shot followed by, in our analysis, nine other shots there. We heard from Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino. He was asked at what point Pretti brandished a weapon in all of this. This was his answer.

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GREGORY BOVINO, U.S. BORDER PATROL COMMANDER AT LARGE: Allie (ph), this situation, again, is evolving. This situation is under investigation. Those facts will come to light.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN: This is important because, an important detail, because concealed carry is legal. We know from local officials Pretti had a permit to carry a weapon. And law enforcement analysts here on CNN have raised questions as to why the picture of this gun that DHS shared online was shown on the seat of a car and not in the scene where Pretti was shot. And we now have an answer. CNN analysis shows if you watch all those videos carefully, you see a federal agent right there who appears to be removing a gun. This is very critical to remember. That piece of video you're seeing right there is happening about a second, or maybe slightly less than a second, before the shooting begins. Now, it is just video. We have to look at it. There will be a lot of questions here, but that's the reason people say you have to have a truly impartial and fair investigation here. Because if he removed the gun before all this shooting broke out, then why is this man now dead? It's really quite a remarkable series of events all coming together here, but almost all of them, Erin, contradict the story that came out of the Trump administration early on today.

BURNETT: Yes. And that is what is so crucial is that the reality such that we can see it on now, so many videos, does not match what official sources are saying the facts are, which is obviously deeply disturbing on so many levels. And you have this man, this horrible tragedy, being killed. Tom Foreman, thank you very much.

I want to go back to the ground now. Whitney Wild is in Minneapolis near a growing memorial for Alex Pretti. And Whitney, what is going on now?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Erin, we are at the Whipple Building here. This is right by the Minneapolis St. Paul Airport. If anybody has, you know, an understanding of the map out here. This is outside of Minneapolis. This is home to multiple federal agencies. What we are seeing on the ground here are dozens of protesters who yell at vehicles as they leave. This has really been the site, Erin, of these major clashes between protesters and federal law enforcement. This has been the epicenter of protesters getting flashbanged, getting tear gassed, by law enforcement.

Now, law enforcement has set up a pretty striking perimeter here around the Whipple Building. You see these fences, above me that, you know, several feet high in the air, these concrete pylons here. Law enforcement hyper aware that this is one of these locations where these protests can get very ugly. This is also where we have seen multiple what appear to be National Guard vehicles. You cannot see them in my live shot, but you can see some of them peppered throughout the parking lot when you drive around here at the Whipple Building.

And we know that -- that Minneapolis Governor -- excuse me, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has mobilized the National Guard. This is something that local officials are asking for because they say at this point, after all of these incidents, after multiple shootings, after all of these protests, their rank and file are tired and they need help from the National Guard. So, that is what we expect to see more of here, Erin.

BURNETT: All right, Whitney Wild, thank you very much. And such important details there from Whitney as to why the National Guard is coming and what they're going to be doing here. Obviously mobilized by the governor of Minnesota. And it's important to say that because obviously we look at other cases, when we looked at LA, for example, right, it was President Trump trying to mobilize the National Guard against the governor of the state.

Here with us now, chief law enforcement intelligence analyst John Miller, as our breaking coverage continues, along with our senior law enforcement analyst, former Philadelphia and D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey, and former Washington Homeland Security and Intelligence Chief Donell Harvin. And I appreciate all of you very much.

Alright, so as Tom Foreman goes through all of this, laying out the video, and it is true that no matter what video we look at, that we have at this point, no matter what angle you look at that we have at this point, nothing shows a situation that had escalated to a point where deadly force would obviously be used. And it is obviously a statement of fact to say that Alex Pretti did not engage or attempt to engage in deadly force in any of the videos that we currently have.

DONELL HARVIN, FORMER WASHINGTON HOMELAND SECURITY AND INTELLIGENCE CHIEF: Absolutely. But facts don't matter, right? because the administration is telling us that CBP is a hero.

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They neutralize the domestic terrorist threat. They follow their training and they follow the book. It's not just the administration that's saying that, but if you listen to conservative media, that's what they're spreading to their viewers. Quite frankly, this is probably the worst case I've ever seen of a police involved shooting. Perhaps Commissioner Ramsey or Miller will have a different perspective.

But it is clear -- it is clear to, you know, don't believe -- don't not believe your eyes that this -- this is not what should be happening. If they were following their training, then their training is garbage. If they were following the book, then the book is trash.

BURNETT: Chief Ramsey, what do you see here?

CHARLES RAMSEY, SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, I mean, this last video that you showed is probably the most important one of all because it shows the beginning, how this whole thing unfolded, and it really contradicts what was told to us by Secretary -- Whatever. Yeah. Bovino as well as Kristi Noem. When you see the aggressive nature of the -- of the officer, the ICE officer, when he pushes that woman to the ground, Mr. Pretti is simply getting in between him and the woman has been thrown, and he's immediately pepper sprayed, thrown to the ground. Now, he had a permit to carry, but let me just say this.

Even if he didn't have a permit to carry is no excuse to just shoot the man. You know, where is the threat? And I have not seen it, and I've looked at this 100 times. I have not seen any indication that would tell me that this individual was a threat that would cause an officer to use deadly force. The one agent in the gray jacket, apparently during the struggle, somebody probably felt the gun, yelled gun. That's normally what would happen. He comes in, he reaches in. If you got a still shot of him, when he approaches, he has nothing in his hand. He reaches in, he comes out with a gun. That is the gun that Mr. Pretti had. and then the shots are fired.

So, you know, this is just not a good situation here. I don't see the justification for the shooting. And with several shots fired, one of the agents is actually backing up while Mr. Pretti is laying in a prone position on the ground, face up, and he continues to shoot. And when you do these investigations, you have to look at every shot that's taken. They have to justify every single shot. It's not a green light once you fire once, you can just continue to fire. That's not the way it works.

BURNETT: John Miller, we also can't tell, and I know we've been -- we've been watching this. I don't know if you're able to tell, but the officer that you've talked about, the ICE officer who pushes the woman, aggressively and then pepper sprays Mr. Pretti, appears to be the same person, but you've described his actions there as completely inconsistent with what would be professional conduct in such a situation. We're not able to tell at this point whether that's the officer who shot -- who shot Mr. Pretti. We also actually aren't able to tell if there was only one officer who shot. Right? We can't -- We can't tell any of that. But are you able to see anything more about that one individual who was behaving in such a way that seemingly, you know, unprofessional way?

JOHN MILLER, CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, it's hard to tell. And we have to do this frame by frame and slow it down, because they're all dressed similarly and they're in a scrum of arms and legs.

BURNETT: Yeah.

MILLER: But -- But I mean, it is if you watch what this grows out of, Erin, and you know, we've all been through these demonstrations. This is the opposite of de escalation. You've got people who are there to annoy them, to impede them. They're blowing whistles. I don't think that makes them domestic terrorists. But you have a training issue here, which is you've got a real mix of agents here. And this is going to be a mystery to us for a bit of time because training for an ICE agent or a CBP agent was six months in the Federal Law Enforcement Training Academy in Georgia, FLETC. When they did their massive hiring for the Trump initiative to start rounding up migrants and patrolling the border in larger numbers, they cut the training from six months to six weeks.

So, the difference, and you know, Chuck Ramsey, who's been in the Chicago PD, ran the Philadelphia PD, the Miami PD, will tell you right now what happens when you take six months of professional law enforcement training and crunch that down to 47 days. What we may be seeing here, and in the Renee Good case, that was an officer who had 10 years experience. But what we may be seeing here in the mix is people who obviously don't have the experience because they may be new hires, but definitely don't have the training.

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That's a bad combination.

BURNETT: Chief, you know, what -- what -- what happens then in that case? I mean, obviously, we don't know these individuals. How long, at one point they had said, I think Secretary Noem had said, oh, only -- only officers that have had a lot of experience are actually on the streets. We don't know if that's the case. We don't know as that's changing in the moment. But Chief, when you condense six months of training to six weeks, if you were to take individuals like that on the street -- and put them on the street, is this the sort of thing you think you could see?

RAMSEY: Yeah. I mean, nothing good can come from that. You know, to be an effective police officer. And again, you have to remember these are Border Patrol officers and ICE officers. They are not trained in urban policing. They just aren't. And I think it's clear when you see how they handle crowd control and things, it's just basic stuff that they just do not do properly. I was looking at one scene around 12:30 today, and they were throwing gas, right? Well, one, of the first things you learn when you throw gas, what direction is the wind blowing? They're gassing themselves. The wind was blowing right back at them. I mean, little stuff like that.

Just, and you know, they just don't have the training, they don't have the supervision, the oversight that they need to have in order to be effective out there and to de-escalate, like John said, you know? They're doing just the opposite of everything that you're basically trained to do. This is bad. And the other, one last thing. Once you unleash things like this and you tell officers it's okay to operate outside the Constitution, you can profile people, you can shoot them, and we got your back. Don't worry about it. Don't think you're going to be able to stop that on a dime, because you won't. You won't. They've unleashed something that we're going to have to deal with for a long time, and it's not good, believe me.

BURNETT: So, Donell, what happens here if, you know, I understand you're going to have Minnesota saying they want to have an investigation, and they already said, the Minneapolis police chief already said that his officers were trying to secure the scene because the ICE officers weren't, right? They immediately took the gun, for example, put it in a car to take the picture and put it out on social media.

But if they're not going to do any investigation, is it going to be the same situation that we were in with the ICE agent who shot Renee Nicole Good, where there just isn't going to be one then? Because they'll stymie the state officials who want to do it. So essentially, this is -- this is just going to be done. There's not going to be any accountability?

HARVIN: Yeah. You know, this is bizarre because with these last two shootings, this shooting and Renee Good, I did forensics in New York City and in Washington D.C., forensic death investigations. I ran those. We've never seen within hours before the body is even cold, pardon my expression, authorities coming out and declaring that these people did the right thing. And so that already, they've already leaned into either no investigation or very light investigation. We saw what happened with the Renee Good investigation.

So, you know, you're supposed to secure this crime scene. You know, and I'll give you a scenario that is quite intriguing. What if that gun was secured by that CBP or ICE agent, and as he's running away, there was an accidental discharge, and the other officer thought that the person still had the gun? When I was in the academy, we were trained. We went through these scenarios. We were trained. If you saw a gun, you say gun, gun, gun. When you retrieved a gun, you say gun retrieved, gun retrieved. If he didn't say gun retrieved, and other people think that he still had a gun in his hand and they heard a gunshot, it could be everywhere.

There's a whole slew of possibilities that need to be investigated, including forensic evidence directly from the scene, ricochets. And if that scene has been trampled on, overrun, and it hasn't been handed over properly, you know, I wouldn't have any confidence in anything that's being done in terms of the forensics if the federal government is not letting the state and locals participate.

BURNETT: And no sign of that at this point. Chief Charles Ramsey, John Miller, Donell Harvin, thank you very much all. And we've got more on this breaking news out of Minneapolis on the ground. Also tonight, Senator Chris Murphy will join us after this.

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BURNETT: Back now with the breaking news out of Minneapolis on this Saturday. Tensions in the street tonight. Another deadly shooting involving federal agents amid the Trump administration's immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. Today killing a 37 year old man. During this altercation that you see, as he was moving to protect other people that were being pushed by ICE, he is shot and killed. You are looking at him here. These are the first images of him. This young man, 37 years old, Alex Pretti, he's an ICU nurse. He worked at a Veterans Affairs hospital. Dead tonight, the hands of ICE.

Homeland Security says that the agents acted in self defense after Mr. Pretti approached Border Patrol officers with a 9 millimeter semiautomatic handgun. Now that's what they say. Of course the video does not show that. Pretti's family and state and local officials are disputing that narrative as well, as we obviously want to get more video and an investigation.

Joining me now is Senator Chris Murphy. He is the Democratic senator from Connecticut. And Senator Murphy, I appreciate your time. So, you've -- you've had a chance to look through all of these videos. You've heard what DHS has said. So what they're saying and what you're seeing don't match.

CHRIS MURPHY, SENATOR, DEMOCRAT, CONNECTICUT: Yeah, they don't match. I mean, Erin, we don't need any more video, but we also know that this is a pattern. Those of us who have been watching statements from the Department of Homeland Security after multiple allegations with citizens shows that they lie almost every time. And it's stunning the way in which they just make up facts after these altercations and after these shootings in order to try to create some fake justification. So this is part of a pattern of fabrication.

And of course, everyone sees what's happening in Minneapolis. Everybody sees that DHS is there not to keep anybody safe. They're there to create chaos, create mayhem, and create confrontation. This is an incredibly dangerous moment. This is an agency that is just fundamentally out of control. They have gone off the legal and moral rails, and it's time for Congress to rein them in. BURNETT: All right, so let me just ask you very basically, I'm just looking at, you're saying the DHS bill won't pass if ICE lawlessness isn't reined in. So what exactly can you do in the Senate to stop this right now? Just in terms of what you actually can do? And then do you actually have the votes and the support to do that?

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MURPHY: Well, I think it's, you know, important to note that the people are behind us here. Right? You know, you have a sizable majority of the country is growing every week that says ICE is out of control. They don't support what they are doing. And so it's important for us to make sure that they're acting lawfully. There are a host of reforms that we could build into this bill that would rein in this lawlessness. CBP is just fundamentally not trained to do these jobs as (ph) Border Patrol. They have no training, no meaningful training in urban law enforcement. One thing you could say is that CBP has to go back to their old job. They got to go back to the border.

Second, you could require a warrant for these arrests to stop these just random sieges and sweeps of neighborhoods. You could also really require significant training. You could require identification. That's just the tip of the iceberg, but what we're talking about is not anything new. We're talking about essentially going back to, you know, the way that these agencies were operating, when they were operating inside the constraints of the law.

BURNETT: So, you -- you just posted something that we don't yet have, so I can't confirm it. I wanted to ask you about it. You just posted on X, Senator, Pam Bondi just sent a letter to Minnesota officials saying ICE will leave if the state turns over its voter database to Trump. What do you know about that?

MURPHY: Well, I do think this letter is -- is public. This is a letter Pam Bondi sent today to Minnesota state officials in which she suggests that ICE's siege of Minneapolis will end if Minnesota does a series of things. And one of the things she is asking for is for the state to turn over its voter lists to the federal government. And she suggests that that is because they want to do a purge of the list to take off the list anybody that they feel is unlawfully on the list.

And what I think you have to understand is that this very well may be the -- the reason why they're in Minneapolis, that Trump is trying to create a pretext to take over elections in swing states. I know that that sounds dystopian and maybe even a little conspiratorial, but he has told you that he, you know, doesn't believe an election is legitimate unless he and his allies win. He says his only regret from 2020 is that he didn't take the voting machines and it's (ph) --

BURNETT: Well, he's also said he won Minneapolis -- Minnesota three times, which he didn't.

MURPHY: Minnesota. Yeah, just pretty curious that that letter specifically says that one of the things that would get ICE out of Minneapolis is if Minnesota gives control of their election lists to Donald Trump. BURNETT: So, when Secretary Noem says today that the reason you're seeing images in places like Minneapolis like this and that there's this violence, she says it's because of the -- the mayor and the governor and how they're handling it. You know, she says they want violence, but she says it's because in other states like Florida and Texas, they're cooperating and they're handing people over, you know, presenting it as a very simple situation where if you just cooperate and hand it over the bad guys that they want, everything would be fine. What do you say to that?

MURPHY: Well, they equate free speech with violence. Right? They call people who are just exercising their First Amendment rights terrorists or inciters of violence. So, yes, it may be true that in certain states, there are more people that are protesting peacefully what ICE is doing, but those are peaceful protesters, and it's fundamentally American to protest.

I was just in Texas. There's violence every single day happening in Texas. There are people who have died in these detention centers. Those deaths inside the detention centers in a red state, Texas, may not get the attention that the shooting of an American citizen gets in a swing state like Minnesota, but there's violence happening in the red states as well.

BURNETT: So, when you say that, and you laid out, Senator, and I think this is important because people are -- are afraid and worried right now. And you've got the National Guard mobilized. Now, that's by the governor, you know, by their choice. Right? But where is this going to go? You know, you have the Insurrection Act looming that possibly the President could invoke that, and then you could have a face off between U.S. troops and National Guard against each other on an American city street. Right? An absolutely horrific thing. People -- People probably can't even -- can't even conscience it. But when you say there's things that can be done and you list that CBP would not be allowed to be in urban centers, and you list that they would actually have to do training, and you went through a list of specific things.

Okay, but then the question is, can that really happen? I mean, do you have -- how quickly could that happen? And do you have Republicans who are going to be with you, who are going to say, yeah, you know what, enough, and we're going to vote to do this? Does that exist?

MURPHY: Well, I mean, I'm not going to let Republicans off the hook here. Yes, this situation is getting more chaotic and more dangerous every single day. Donald Trump is looking for a fight.

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Again, I think he's trying to use this chaos as pretext to rig the election. I think that's a very clear possibility. But Republicans in the Senate and the House of Representatives don't work for Donald Trump. They work for the American people. So they could join us and demand that ICE leave Minneapolis. They could work with us on these reasonable reforms. Right?

I'm not talking about anything that would be a comprehensive, total, complete rewrite of the immigration statutes. I know that the funding for the government runs out in a week. We don't have time. But we certainly have time to just tell CBP to go back to the border. We certainly have time to require warrants to make the situation a little less combustible. And I don't know the answer to your question. Maybe Republicans won't support us, but if they don't, they are essentially putting us even further down this path of violence.

BURNETT: Senator, before you go, I just want to ask you one other thing, because I know you were in Texas and you were looking at those facilities, and we don't see a lot of them. Right? And we hear from some people who are in them briefly. But that's all we hear. And -- And then, you know, some of the stories that come out are obviously incredibly upsetting. You know, how much access were you able to get?

MURPHY: I do think this is important to talk about because we are rightfully focused on what's happening in Minneapolis. We have a lot of cameras there so that we can see it. But every day, there are hundreds of people in Texas, maybe even thousands, who are being literally disappeared. And these aren't what you would consider illegal immigrants.

These are people who came to the United States, applied for asylum, have been showing up for their court appearances, and are just being taken out of the courtroom, off the streets, put into a detention center, and sent back to their home country -- home countries, where they face danger or potential death. And nobody notices. There are people dying in these detention centers. I was not let into the two detention centers. I didn't show up unannounced. I gave 24 hours notice. They turned me away. I was let into the immigration court, and I saw some pretty horrific things in that immigration court that I just described.

But it is worrying that members of Congress are not being let into these facilities. I think there are some pretty, potentially some pretty sinister things happening inside those places.

BURNETT: Yeah. Obviously, zero transparency. Thank you very much, Senator Murphy. I appreciate your time.

MURPHY: Thank you.

BURNETT: And we're covering this breaking news on the ground in Minneapolis. A state senator, a member of the Somali community in Minnesota, has been very outspoken about the immigration crackdown. Will be with us after this.

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[20:35:00]

BURNETT: And we are back with our breaking news coverage after federal agents shot and killed an American citizen. This is the second time this month that it has happened in Minneapolis, Minnesota. DHS says that Alex Pretti, a 37 year old man, and a nurse at a local veterans hospital, violently resisted officers when they tried to disarm him. But, when you look at the footage taken by onlookers, the videos do seem to show something different. I want to go to the White House, where CNN's Kristen Holmes is following developments. And Kristen, what are you hearing from the Trump administration here as these hours go on and more and more videos come out?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, still, as of now, it appears that they are doubling down on this effort to have federal agents, not only just in Minneapolis and Minnesota, but across the country. We have no indication from the White House or the administration that they're going to pull any of this back. Despite what we're seeing in those videos and despite the fact that we're seeing these tensions really grow online. And the person who came out as really the face of the response here, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. She was in touch with the White House all day on the messaging around this.

We know President Trump had privately defended the agent who pulled the trigger here. And Noem blamed everyone else. She said that it was partly the fault of these local officials and she blamed the man who was shot. Please take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTI NOEM, SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: I don't know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign. This is a violent riot when you have someone showing up with weapons and are using them to assault law enforcement officers.

(UNKNOWN): During this operation --

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And just to be clear here, there was no indication yet, nor we've seen any in any of the video that he showed up with this weapon and was using it against law enforcement officials. And we should also note that he was legally allowed to carry a gun. He had his conceal carry permit, which is something the state allows. So, I do just want to point that out. Now interestingly, President Trump seemed to be sending several messages on Truth Social that were, in part, look to be unrelated to the actual shooting, talking about fraud in Minnesota.

And I was told that they actually weren't unrelated, that President Trump was trying to remind the American people why these agents were there on the ground. He, of course, has seen all the same polling that we have that a majority of Americans across the country don't like what they're seeing in terms of immigration enforcement, what these ICE agents are doing on the ground.

He, however, has not blamed the agenda. He said it's not actually what they're doing. It's the fact that it's not being, with the good that they're doing is not being promoted enough. Of course, again, as we continue to say what we are showing and what America is seeing is videos and photos and images that are from people on the ground showing what they are seeing. And that, again, President Trump is saying that they're not promoting his administration as (ph) not countering that enough with what positive ICE is doing. BURNETT: Yeah, I mean, it is pretty incredible. You know, be talking about positives when you have, you know, people being shot, now multiple people shot and killed in protests in just one city in recent weeks. Kristen Holmes, thank you very much from the White House.

And I want to talk now with Minnesota State Senator Zaynab Mohamed, who joins us now. Zaynab, another horrible tragedy in Minneapolis. How are you even responding to this? I mean, this is a horrible tragedy. A horrible loss of life, another devastated family, but a community in a city that is operating under trauma.

ZAYNAB MOHAMED, STATE SENATOR, DEMOCRAT, MINNESOTA: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me, Erin. It has been a devastating day, as I'm sure you've heard all day. This city has been through a lot, especially this community in South Minneapolis has been through so much trauma over the last few years, but certainly the last month or so. And so it's been a difficult day in our community. Our community is strong. This is a resilient community. They have been through a global pandemic.

[20:40:00]

They have been through the uprising of George Floyd. They watched Rene Good get killed in their streets. They watched another man get shot in north Minneapolis just a week ago, and now the killing of Alex. And you know, this is a well connected community, but they are -- today they are grieving and they want answers. They're demanding answers, as they should. And you know, I said this earlier, but if grief was a place, it would be south Minneapolis today.

BURNETT: So what -- what is going to happen? I mean, you've got the National Guard, the State National Guard, you know, now mobilized by Governor Walz. Right? To assist Minneapolis State Police, who are obviously exhausted. So, that's going to happen, but obviously it's an incredibly fraught moment. So, State Senator, what -- what can happen now for this not to escalate into the kind of situation that frankly would put the nation in a crisis?

MOHAMED: Yeah, I mean, I think that's exactly what the people and the leaders of the city are asking for, is for our state not to go through another crisis. And the most important thing that can happen right now is for ICE agents to leave. I'm sure you know this and you've been reporting on it. We've had thousands of ICE agents on the ground. We have more ICE agents than we have -- than we have of police officers.

What we need is for our community to be safer. And ICE agents have been reckless. They are driving on the wrong way of the boat (ph). They are racially profiling people. They are shooting people in (ph) broad daylight. And their leaders are lying about why exactly those things are happening. And so they are creating so much chaos and lawlessness. What we are asking for the federal government to do is to remove these ICE agents. And if you want to enforce immigration laws in our state, fine, but work with the state government and let us know, let us know exactly who you're targeting and for what reason. We want to follow the rule of law and that is not happening here. We want leaders who are going to enforce the rule of law. And so far these ICE agents have not been able to do that. And the Vice President said they have immunity, and we think that's unacceptable.

BURNETT: So what happens if the ICE agents, as all signs indicate, do not leave?

MOHAMED: I think our community will continue to be resilient -- to be resilient. Our community yesterday we had the largest strike, I think, of the history of our state. We had 50,000 people on the ground in negative 20 degree weather. People in this community are not afraid. They understand the rule of law. They understand what their rights are. They are demanding for the President, the Vice President, for Kristi Noem, and for ICE agents to do the same, to follow the rule of law.

We want peace, and that is what we're demanding. What we are getting is chaos and lawlessness. What we have also seen is ICE agents, the agency doubled their force. They have recruited well over 12,000 more agents than they had. They are shortening their -- their -- their -- for them to -- for them to go through a proper training from five weeks to now to less than that. To five weeks from five months to at least two weeks or something like that.

BURNETT: Right. Yes, I think six months to six weeks. Yeah.

MOHAMED: So what we want our credible officers -- Exactly. So what we want are credible officers who are trained, who understand the rule of law and who are going to keep our community safe. And that's not happening. We also want agencies that work with our government. And that is not happening. And so what we're seeing is chaos and lawlessness in our streets. Communities are keeping themselves safe. They have been peacefully protesting. They are observing what's happening. They want to make sure that their neighbors' constitutional rights are not being violated. This community has been through a lot, but they are resilient and they understand what they're doing. And so I think what we want is for them to get out of our city.

BURNETT: State Senator Zaynab Mohammad, thank you very much. I appreciate your time tonight.

MOHAMED: Thank you for having me.

BURNETT: And as we've been seeing some of the videos, we are now hearing from those who were there and those who know the man who was shot and killed today and witnessed the shooting firsthand. Sara Sidner spoke to one of Alex Pretti's neighbors who said he was eating a donut at a nearby shop. He described what happened as the shooting unfolded. It's coming.

All right. Sorry about that. It's not there. I promise we'll -- we'll get that back to you. Sara's reporting, obviously it's been so spectacular speaking to so many witnesses. We're going to bring that to you in just a moment. Going to squeeze in a quick break here though as we're monitoring those crowds. We just showed you on the ground, gathering for a mass memorial here even in these sub freezing temperatures in Minneapolis tonight. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [20:45:00]

BURNETT: Outrage growing in Minneapolis over the federal agent shooting and killing 37 year old Alex Pretti. We've got new video which appears to show a federal officer taking a gun away from Mr. Pretti before the first shot. That's (ph) really crucial. They took the gun away from him before there was any shot. He didn't shoot. That's on video. Now, we're hearing from a man who witnessed the shooting firsthand as well, from our Sara Sidner, who was on the ground throughout the incident today. He described what happened as the shooting unfolded. Watch their conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You were inside the donut shop when you saw the ICE agents. They were chasing someone else who came into the shop.

NILSON BARAHONA, WITNESS, ALEX PRETTI MURDER: You're right. Yeah.

SIDNER: They couldn't get into the shop, so then they responded to those who were outside who had come to help.

BARAHONA: Yeah.

SIDNER: What did you see before the shooting, just before the shooting, and then what did you see happen?

BARAHONA: Well, what I saw is that there was a lot of people, you know, getting together, trying to come and get the attention from the officers, and they managed to do it. But the way that the officers reacted when they saw these people, you know, they started pushing them away and, like, being physical to them, you know? And as they were being physical to this one lady in particular, she tried to look to somebody, you know, to grab onto.

And it just happened to be this person who got shot. And -- And -- And I saw him, like, trying to hug her and push her away to the sidewalk. But when he did that, all the officers got the attention on him, you know, as he was the one taking that woman away from the hands. And everything escalated so fast. It's like, I don't know what.

SIDNER: How did you see. Did you see how they treated the man who was trying to grab the woman away from them?

BARAHONA: Well, we got video. We can give it to you if you want to see that. But I was -- Honestly, this is a very traumatic experience, and my mind doesn't even want to go there, to be honest. I don't want to think about it. But this is what we're living right now, you know? And I came here from Atlanta to share the love. I came here to tell Minneapolis they are -- they are not alone. I never thought that I was going to be witnessing none of this, you know?

SIDNER: What has been your experience?

[20:50:00] BURNETT: Have you had an experience with ICE, with DHS?

BARAHONA: In 2019, through the 287(g) program, I was put in immigration detention, and I was detained for 13 months. During those 13 months, I managed to organize a hunger strike and a work strike inside detention. We were able to get the -- the -- the attention of the authorities. And that place ended up being shut down eventually because of what we did inside detention, you know, organizing and activism. That -- That story became a documentary. And now I'm going around the country telling my story, showing the documentary to people, you know, trying to create spaces so we can have local community members and local organizers to connect.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: Joining me now is former FBI agent Dan Brunner. Dan, you know, you hear that eyewitness and obviously, you know, what he saw. We've now got so much video, that is all -- all, you know, showing what happened. What is your take from everything that you have seen. And having had a few hours for it to sink in, re-rack it, think about it?

DAN BRUNNER, FORMER FBI AGENT: I've seen a lot of the videos and I've seen a lot of this different commentaries from on multiple news networks to really get a feel of this all. And this is absolutely a horrible situation that is, for me, in my opinion, was excessive force. Seeing the officer remove the weapon from the victim and seeing him move across the street, and then within a second or two, you hearing the first shot. They haven't shown us that the only argument that could be had here is if the individual had a second weapon somewhere on his body or he was reaching for a second weapon.

But we don't see that. We don't have that. The government would have shown us that. They've shown us the single weapon that he has. The other thing that's really disturbing is on this video that actually you're showing right now, as when you see the incident, when you see the officers closing in on the victim, you see one officer with his gun out while he's physically trying to, you know, detain the -- detain the victim.

And that is one of the things that we are trained with. If you have your gun out, you do not -- you are not putting hands on the individual that you're attempting to detain. Because for one exact reason. There may be a what's called a sympathetic discharge where your hand may be thinking that it's flexing to your --

BURNETT: Yeah.

DAN BRUNNER, FORMER FBI AGENT: -- to detain, to punch, to grab a handcuff. And those are the things that I feel may have happened here, that there was a sympathetic discharge. And then the other officers heard that firing and they decided to open fire. They opened fire on an individual that was unarmed, and they killed a man that was unarmed. And that's the problem that we have now. And we're seeing ICE officers that are not trained in this sort of situation. BURNETT: Well, what you just said there, they killed a man who was unarmed. I mean, just a -- It's painful to even hear it when you say it that way. I want to just show what you're talking about, though. We've got this freeze frame. Okay, I've got it up here, Dan. This is the instant when the officer takes the gun away from Alex Pretti. And I will notice for anyone -- note for anyone, you know, just -- just joining or not -- not aware, he had a license to carry this.

And there is no evidence in any of the video that at any point did he pull the gun. But they -- they took it off of him. Right? Right here in the freeze frame. This is before the first shot. I'm just -- just making the point of what you're saying. This is before the first shot. So his gun was gone away from him. His weapon was away from him when he was shot. Right? It's just there in -- in black and white in a freeze frame, what you just said, that he was unarmed when killed.

BRUNNER: And you see that there's another angle that would be off to the left, another camera angle, where you see that officer, just to the left of the individual with the gray jacket, there's an individual with a green shirt. That individual has a gun out. And at a certain point you see that weapon discharge, and that is the first shot. When I believe, like I said, he was involved in attempting to detain the victim.

BURNETT: And you think that was, when you say sympathetic, that's essentially, just to be clear here, Dan, you're saying that was probably accidental. But this is the guy that you're saying had the gun in one hand and was pushing somebody with his other hand, which would be against protocol, number one? But number two, why you think the gun may have gone off?

BRUNNER: Correct. I believe that he had the gun in his left hand and went -- Or I'm not quite sure which hand he had it, but you could see the gun. And I believe that, yes, he had his gun while he was trying to detain the individual and that maybe his hand flexed, maybe he fired a shot or someone yelled gun. I know Chief Ramsey mentioned the same thing you typically called, you know, gun removed.

These type of situations, you had a very chaotic situation. I believe that that first shot may have been an accidental discharge, but the other nine shots were not.

[20:55:00]

Those individuals fired at it, and those are the things that we are trained as agents, as officers. You're responsible for every round that leaves your -- your gun. Every other officer had to have seen the danger, the threat of danger to themselves. You cannot fire your weapon because you saw somebody else do it. You yourself are responsible for your gun. You are responsible for those rounds that leave your gun. They had to have seen a danger from coming from the person that was on the ground. If they didn't see it, you cannot fire because someone else is shooting. You cannot do that. If they didn't see the danger, they were just firing.

BURNETT: So Dan, then what do you say when they -- they -- it's already come out from, you know, the federal government, from DHS, that this was in self defense. There's nothing more to see here. Obviously no indication that there'll be any sort of an investigation. What's your reaction to that?

BRUNNER: Well, there's no -- One of the things that the government has said today and they said in the previous shooting is that these were defensive shots. There's no such thing as defensive shooting. There's no such thing. It is a made up term. They were shooting to subdue a subject. When you shoot your weapon, you are -- you're shooting to stop the threat, not to kill the person. You want the threat to end and you continue shooting until the threat is eliminated. It stopped. It no longer is (ph).

It does not mean kill. If it happens to -- If the person happens to die, that's unfortunate. But you stop. So these individuals, the defensive shooting is a made up term that the government is saying, and we've clearly seen just by video that a lot of the statements that they've made this morning, Secretary Noem and Mr. Bovino, that they've said they've already been debunked.

So, we know that this, and clearly the photograph of the weapon in somebody's front seat, there's no evidence being collected correctly. There isn't an investigation. The previous shooting, we already know from the -- from the resignations yesterday, we know that those investigations into that first shooting were derailed. They were asked to not proceed and move forward.

BURNETT: Right.

BRUNNER: So, I have questions about this. And we know that the statements already have been -- have been debunked. So, I have real questions whether this investigation will move forward correctly.

BURNETT: Dan Brunner, thank you very much, our FBI agent, and please stay with us. So much more on this breaking news with the unrest in Minnesota after another person shot and killed by federal agents today.

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