US federal law enforcement officers fatally shot an American citizen in Minneapolis in the second such killing in less than three weeks, sparking major protests in cities across the country.
Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old registered nurse living in Minneapolis, was shot dead after being sprayed with a chemical agent and wrestled to the ground by federal agents when he appeared to come to the aid of a person being shoved to the ground by an officer.
Video evidence showed Pretti was holding a phone, not a gun, when he was tackled and shot, directly contradicting the claims of senior Trump administration officials that he threatened to “massacre law enforcement”. Pretti was legally licensed to have a gun but it is unclear whether he had one on his person at the time of the incident, and the videos do not show him ever having one in his hand.
Here are the day’s key Trump administration stories at a glance.
Major protests spread across US in wake of Alex Pretti shooting
Thousands of protesters gathered in cities including Minneapolis, New York City, San Francisco, Boston and Providence, Rhode Island. They braved extreme cold to shout slogans including: “Say it once, say it twice, we will not put up with ICE!”
New York city council member Chi Ossé addressed a crowd in freezing temperatures to call for the abolishment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “We need Nuremberg trials for the people of ICE, for the people who are committing crimes against humanity here in our country. I refuse to call them law enforcement. They are agents of chaos. They are destroying the fabric of our country.”
‘He wanted to help people’: family and friends remember nurse Alex Pretti
Michael Pretti, Alex’s father, described his son as someone who “cared about people deeply and he was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the United States with ICE, as millions of other people are upset. He felt that doing the protesting was a way to express that, you know, his care for others.”
“He wanted to help people,” said Dimitri Drekonja, chief of infectious diseases at the VA hospital and professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota, who worked with Pretti at the hospital and on a research project. “He was a super nice, super helpful guy – looked after his patients. I’m just stunned.”
‘How many more Americans need to die?’ Minneapolis mayor condemns Trump
Jacob Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis, gave a press conference in the wake of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in which he asked how many more Americans needed to die or get badly hurt for this operation to end. Read his statement in full.
Democrats vow to block funding package if it includes homeland security money
The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, said his party would block a funding package next week if it included money for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) , which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In the wake of the Pretti shooting, he said: “Democrats sought common sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, but because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE. I will vote no.”
‘You ask us for peace, we get shot in the face’: Minneapolis in turmoil
“I’m 70 years old and I’m fucking angry,” the man yelled, as clouds of chemicals hung in the sub-zero air in Minneapolis, capturing the sentiment of a city that has now seen two people killed by federal agents in less than three weeks.
Tim Walz, Minnesota’s governor, said at a press conference after Saturday’s killing: “You ask us for peace, and we give it, and we get shot in the face on the streets coming out of a donut shop.”
Trump will not go to Super Bowl in California because it’s ‘too far away’
The US president has opted to skip next month’s Super Bowl in northern California, citing the distance to the game, amid an ongoing culture-war backlash over the NFL’s choice of half-time and pre-game performers.
The NFL’s entertainment lineup includes Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny as the half-time headliner and punk rock band Green Day as a pre-game act, both of whom have been vocal critics of Donald Trump.
Donald Trump has said that British soldiers who fought in Afghanistan were “among the greatest of all warriors” after being criticised for his false claims that non-US Nato troops stayed away from the frontlines during the conflict.
What else happened today:
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A powerful winter storm with more than 140 million Americans in its crosshairs started sweeping across much of the US on Saturday, packing heavy snow and sleet as well as freezing rain and causing widespread power outages.
Catching up? Here’s what happened on 23 January 2026.
