Protest Forms in Milwaukee After Man with Wisconsin Ties Shot, Killed by Border Patrol Agent in Minneapolis
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Saturday, January 24, 2026 shooting in Minneapolis of 37-year-old Alex Pretti sparked protests nationwide, including in Milwaukee.
Family identified the 37-year-old man shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent as Alex Pretti, a Minneapolis nurse who was protesting against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
WBAY confirmed through the Green Bay Area Public School District that Pretti graduated from Preble High School in Green Bay.
After graduating high school, he went to the University of Minnesota, graduating in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in biology, society and the environment, according to family.
The Department of Homeland Security alleged that Pretti approached border patrol agents with a handgun, and “violently resisted” when agents tried to disarm him. The Department of Homeland Security said a federal Border Patrol agent killed Pretti in self-defense. Local officials dispute that allegation. Multiple videos of the confrontation show federal agents spraying Pretti with a substance and pinning him to the ground before the shooting.
Pretti was a legal gun owner and did not have a criminal record, according to Minneapolis police Chief Brian O’Hara. Minnesota’s gun laws allow open carrying of a handgun if the gun owner has a valid permit.
This is the second deadly shooting this month of an American citizen in Minneapolis at the hands of a federal agent. Investigators are still reviewing what led up to Saturday’s shooting. Pretti was killed just over a mile away from where Renee Good was shot.
Milwaukee Protests Protesters gathered in downtown Milwaukee on Jan. 24 in response to the shooting of Pretti.
Around 100 protesters organized at Red Arrow Park around 2 p.m., then marched to the downtown ICE facility on Broadway and Knapp Street.
A separate gathering was also held Saturday night near Bremen and Burleigh streets in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood. There, residents brought candles and flashlights as a sign of solidarity with Minnesota.
Trump’s Response President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social a few hours after Saturday’s shooting, saying, in part, federal agents are in Minnesota because of “massive monetary fraud” and “illegal criminals that were allowed to infiltrate the state through the democrats’ open border policy.”
Trump also lashed out at Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. “This is the gunman’s gun, loaded (with two additional full magazines!), and ready to go – What is that all about? Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers?” he wrote. “The Mayor and the Governor called them off? It is stated that many of these Police were not allowed to do their job, that ICE had to protect themselves — Not an easy thing to do!”
He continued by saying, “LET OUR ICE PATRIOTS DO THEIR JOB! 12,000 Illegal Alien Criminals, many of them violent, have been arrested and taken out of Minnesota. If they were still there, you would see something far worse than you are witnessing today!”
