Does Alex Pretti’s death mark a turning point for Trump?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast for Monday, January 26th. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House.
And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent.
And we also have with us Minnesota Public Radio's Clay Masters. Hi, Clay.
Hello there.
And today on the show, federal agents shot and killed another American in Minneapolis over the weekend. 37-year-old Alex Preddy was an intensive care unit nurse at a VA hospital. He was using his phone to film ICE agents. When the situation rapidly escalated within seconds, half a dozen masked agents were pinning him to the ground face down, and then he was shot in the back multiple times. Clay, we know this because there was video, a lot of it. What more can you tell us about what happened?
So the video shows Alex Preddy in this neighborhood in Minneapolis, a little after nine in the morning. There was a person who was shoved to the ground. Preddy appears to be trying to support this person who was shoved to the ground. And during that, you see a swarm of federal agents approach him. He has his phone out and then it escalates very quickly. Federal officials have said that Preti approached agents in a threatening manner with a gun before he was shot and killed by an officer.
What incident escalated tensions surrounding the Trump administration's immigration policies?
But it's very important to note here that video and eyewitness testimony from NPR News dispute that account.
Federal officials, including the Homeland Security Secretary, say that he brandished it, that he brought it. aiming to do maximum harm. What the video seems to show is that he wasn't brandishing, he was holding his phone, and he was disarmed before he was shot, just like a second before he was shot. Clay, how are state and local officials responding to these events? And what has it been like there in Minnesota?
I want to come at this a couple of ways. Number one, I think it's important just for context. On Friday, a producer and myself went out to some of these neighborhoods when there was this general strike that was happening where a lot of businesses had closed their doors. Some of those businesses remained open to provide community support, to provide coffee to some of these witnesses, these ICE observers, as we've been seeing pop up in the Twin Cities, people who are keeping their eye on the streets and then alerting people. When immigration customs enforcement agents are in the area.
What details are known about Alex Pretti's shooting?
I talked with people who were at these different businesses who were talking about the fear that they have the concern that they have, but also just the community coming together to look after their neighbors. I mean, there's a very strong sense of that, especially in the neighborhoods in Minneapolis where I was. You know, even driving down the street, you would see there was a median where, you know, this is very, very cold temperatures outside. People had a fire going in the middle of this median. They had whistles. There's very much this neighborhood watch feel of throughout many of these neighborhoods. And so, you know. Alex Pretti, as he was out that morning, was like so many people in the community that have been keeping an alert eye on what is happening in their neighborhoods.
I just think that that perspective is important to have here. There is a community strength that we are seeing throughout the Twin Cities right now. The reaction that we're seeing locally here... I mean, the governor, Tim Walz of Minnesota, and the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Fry, have regularly been calling on the Trump administration to back off. On Sunday, there was a press conference that Governor Walz and the attorney general, Keith Ellison, also a Democrat, held. They talked about the fact that when... The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the local law enforcement for the state, arrived on site for this fatal shooting. They were refused access, and then they obtained a judicial warrant and were refused access as well.
Again, we are seeing something similar play out that happened after the killing of Renee Macklin Good, where the state is being shut out of the investigation.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:04–1:19
2
What incident escalated tensions surrounding the Trump administration's immigration policies?
1:19–2:24
3
What details are known about Alex Pretti's shooting?
2:24–9:33
4
How are local officials responding to the shooting in Minneapolis?
9:33–16:26
5
What has been the community's reaction to the immigration enforcement in Minneapolis?
16:26–19:44