Minneapolis ICE Shooting Sparks Protests and Legal Fight (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: President Trump is facing increased pressure from within his own party to launch a full investigation into the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old nurse, Alex Pretty, by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday. In just the last few minutes we've also heard from the president who's posted on Truth Social saying he had had a quote good call with the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, saying they seem to be on a similar wavelength. Well that is what the president posted. We'll be live in Minneapolis shortly. First this from our world correspondent Joe Inwood.

[00:00:36] Speaker 2: Even the bitter cold could not quell their anger. Thousands took to the streets of Minnesota protesting against the shooting of Alex Pretty by federal immigration agents and the raid he was objecting to when he was killed.

[00:00:51] Speaker 3: I think it was completely senseless. It was murder. He was not threatening. He was not attacking ICE and I think the government is lying about what they're doing to cover up. They're killing people in the streets. It needs to stop. We need ICE out now.

[00:01:06] Speaker 2: When she says ICE she's referring to Immigration Customs Enforcement. It's their officers you can see here tackling Alex Pretty to the ground. He was an A&E nurse and had a license to carry a firearm. In this footage, which we've slowed, you can see them take what appears to be a gun from his belt before any shots are fired. The federal government previously accused him of brandishing a weapon and threatening their officers. The footage makes it clear he did not have a gun in his hands.

[00:01:37] Speaker 4: When someone makes the choice to come into an active law enforcement scene, interfere, obstruct, delay or assault law enforcement officers and and they bring a weapon to do that, that is a choice that that individual made.

[00:01:55] Speaker 2: But that argument has angered some of Donald Trump's traditional allies. They worry about the suggestion that legally carrying a gun can be used to justify you being killed by law enforcement. In a statement, the National Rifle Association said responsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalisations and demonising law-abiding citizens. While gun owners of America said the Second Amendment protects Americans' right to bear arms while protesting, a right the federal government must not infringe upon. For the Democratic governor of Minnesota, this is about much more than just immigration raids.

[00:02:35] Speaker 5: This is an inflection point, America. If we cannot all agree that the smearing of an American citizen and besmirching everything they stood for and asking us not to believe what we saw, I don't know what else to tell you.

[00:02:53] Speaker 3: Alex Pretti. Say his name. Alex Pretti.

[00:02:56] Speaker 2: Donald Trump has promised to review everything, but that will not be enough for many Minnesotans. Say his name.

[00:03:04] Speaker 1: Alex Pretti. Say his name.

[00:03:05] Speaker 2: Say his name. They not only want what they see as justice for Alex Pretti, but an end to the immigration raids that brought him to the streets in the first place. Joe Inwood, BBC News.

[00:03:16] Speaker 1: Well, Madaria Arradondo was chief of Minneapolis police between 2017 and 2022. He gave me his view and what he's seen in the videos coming out of Minneapolis.

[00:03:28] Speaker 6: I will tell you that there's a lot of concern that I have from the video, the shooting, the killing of Mr. Alex Pretti. What the DHS statements that initially came out within hours after his killing don't seem to comport with what I've seen in the video. And as your viewers at the BBC have seen the video frame by frame, it's certainly what I have seen. I've investigated, I've been in leading our department when we've had officer involved deaths, and this is very concerning. The use of deadly force in Mr. Pretti's situation does not seem to be certainly what would have been with our policies, our guidelines that the federal agents, when they use their actions to shoot and kill him. So there's a lot of concern. I will tell you right now, certainly not only in Minneapolis, but I've been talking to police service leadership around the country. And there's a concern that there is a crisis of credibility right now in the country with these federal agents here in the states. And that is definitely a concern as they move forward.

[00:04:37] Speaker 1: Let's go live to Minneapolis and to my colleague, Kyle Nasman. He's there at the courthouse because Minnesota's attorney general is there trying to establish the legality or otherwise of the ICE presence in the state. So tell us more.

[00:04:53] Speaker 7: Yeah, even while we see everything happening on the streets from these vigils and protests, there are some very important legal battles playing out right now here in this courthouse. There's two of them. Let's start with the one that you mentioned there, Matthew. And this is the state and local authorities arguing against the Trump administration that essentially this surge in immigration officials here, some 3,000 officers believed to be on the streets of this state and the city, that they should leave the state. They're calling for this operation to be ended. They say that, look, this is essentially infringing on Minnesota's state sovereignty. They say it's a dangerous operation. They say it's endangering U.S. citizens. Of course, we've seen two shooting deaths of U.S. citizens, Alex Priddy being the most recent one. And they say it's unconstitutional, that just given the sheer forces here, that the state is unable to hold classes at schools normally, unable to police the streets in the way that it wants. The Trump administration is in the courtroom right now. They're arguing, of course, that that's all nonsense, that they are following the law. They're enforcing the federal laws of the land when it comes to immigration, that they have the right to be here to remove undocumented immigrants and dangerous criminals from the streets of any state. We have been hearing some reporting from inside the courtroom. This is coming from CBS News, our partner here in the U.S. And they say that, right now, the judge in this case, which is a Biden appointee, is somewhat skeptical of the arguments being made by the lawyers on the side of Minnesota. This is really kind of unprecedented legal territory right now. This all has to do with the 10th Amendment, which recognizes, of course, states' rights and states' sovereignty vs. federal authority. This gets into really sticky legal territory. But it seems right now as if the judge is a bit skeptical of the arguments being made on behalf of the state. There's a second case. This has to do with evidence in the shooting of Alex Priddy. This is also being watched closely. Yesterday, there was a ruling that said that that evidence needs to be preserved, presumably, so that state investigators can look at it. Yes. This will be the first time, once this court ruling comes up later today, that we hear from the Trump administration about any efforts that it's undertaken to keep that evidence safe.

[00:07:04] Speaker 1: Briefly, the president has had a call with the governor. Give me an idea of the mood, where you are, the investigation. The borders are being sent down to Minnesota. Reflect on all those things. Yeah.

[00:07:19] Speaker 7: I think that some of those actions we've seen from President Trump today are significant. I think you could really interpret some of those, anyway, as a bit of a backtrack right now on the administration's policy. The president reportedly not very happy with the way that things are playing out in this state, with the headlines that are coming out. Immigration and immigration enforcement has been a winning issue for the president. But right now, we're even seeing some high-profile Republicans calling out these ICE actions here, seeing Tom Homan being sent here, hearing that phone call between the Democratic governor, Tim Walz, and, of course, President Trump, saying that it went well. That could signal that maybe we're going to see some of the heavy-handed tactics, some of the really wide-ranging tactics being used here started to scale back. We'll have to wait and see. We haven't seen any evidence of that yet. And in terms of Tom Homan, I think many people see him as maybe a more moderate voice when it comes to immigration enforcement, compared to somebody like Kristi Noem or Greg Bovino, who is the head of the Border Patrol here in the United States. We'll have to wait and see, but interesting to see some of those signals coming from the president today.