Ariana Grande reposts Zohran Mamdani's call to 'abolish ICE' after Minneapolis shooting

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: Pop star Ariana Grande reshared a post from New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani following the fatal shooting of a Minnesota man during an encounter with federal agents.

The incident unfolded Saturday, Jan 24, in Minneapolis, where Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old Minnesota resident and ICU nurse, was shot and killed during an altercation with federal officers. 

A fatal encounter and Ariana Grande's response

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem addressed the shooting during a press conference.

According to Noem, Pretti had “reacted violently” during the altercation. She also questioned why he was carrying a firearm at the time. She said Pretti had “impeded their law enforcement operations, attacked those officers, had a weapon on him and multiple, dozens of rounds of ammunition.”

Noem also said that Pretti had “brandished” a weapon before he was shot. “This looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage,” Noem said, “and to kill law enforcement.”

However, video footage from the scene appears to complicate those claims. In the recording, one agent can be seen removing what appears to be Pretti’s legally owned handgun from his waistband after the shooting.

The officers involved were from the Department of Homeland Security, not Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Regardless, pop star Grande reposted a message from NYC Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani slamming the latter.

“As tens of thousands across America protest the violence that ICE sows with impunity, federal agents shot and killed another person in Minneapolis today,” Mamdani posted on X. “ICE terrorizes our cities. ICE puts us all in danger. Abolish ICE.”

Family fury and eyewitness accounts

Pretti’s family issued a statement Saturday, accusing federal agents of killing their son. They said he was killed “by murdering and cowardly thugs.”

“Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends, and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital,” the family said. “Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not through around the hero term lightly.”

The family claimed Pretti’s final moments were spent trying to protect someone else. “However, his last thought and act was to protect a woman,” they continued. “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," they said, before concluding, “Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man.”

Late Saturday, two eyewitnesses backed up the family’s account in sworn affidavits filed in federal court as part of an ACLU lawsuit challenging the federal deployment. One witness, a physician who observed the incident from a nearby apartment, said under penalty of perjury that they “did not see him attack the agents or brandish a weapon of any kind.”

A woman who filmed the encounter from just behind Pretti also contradicted DHS officials. “The man did not approach the agents with a gun,” she testified. “He approached them with a camera.”