Hundreds gather on Oak Park bridge to protest Minnesota Border Patrol killing

A few hundred protestors braved single-digit temperatures in Oak Park to take part in a demonstration following news that a Border Patrol agent had shot and killed a man in Minneapolis on Saturday. 

Protestors marched several blocks from the campus of Lincoln Elementary School to the Home Avenue pedestrian bridge that arches over Interstate 290 while carrying signs, banners, megaphones and musical instruments and calling for an end to the intensified federal immigration enforcement operations seen first in Chicagoland and now playing out in Minnesota. Motorists and truck drivers traveling on the expressway honked their horns in support of the demonstration, as did a few CTA Blue Line train conductors who blew their whistles and waved to the protestors from their windows. 

 This protest was organized quickly following the news that a border patrol agent had shot and killed a 37-year-old man in Minneapolis Saturday morning. 

 The man was identified by his parents as Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse at the Veterans Administration, according to the Associated Press. The officer who shot Pretti is an eight-year Border Patrol veteran, federal officials told the AP. 

The shooting happened amid widespread daily protests in the Twin Cities since the Jan. 7 shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good, who was killed when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fired into her vehicle. Pretti was killed just over a mile away from where Good was shot, according to the AP.  

Illinois 7^th District Congressional candidate Anabel Mendoza and other local activists coordinated the protest in about two hours following the news of Pretti’s killing. 

“This is a critical moment where we cannot stay silent, we need leadership that has a spine, that is going to make sure that they are fighting for our communities, fighting for our safety, fighting for our money to actually protect our communities and not terrorize them,” Mendoza told Wednesday Journal. “People are channeling their rage into action, and that is the type of solidarity we need right now from Chicago to Minneapolis. People are taking action. They’re taking a stand and saying not a single neighbor more should be shot down.” 

The march started at Lincoln Elementary because that’s where Oak Park attorney Scott Sakiyama had been arrested by ICE agents in October after he tailed them for several miles as they drove from the Broadview Detention Center to Oak Park. He was charged with impeding federal agents, but his case was dropped earlier this month. 

 Sakiyama said that seeing two people killed by immigration enforcement agents while doing community watchdog activities similar to what he had been doing in the lead up to his arrest is scary, but that it also strengthened his commitment. 

“We always knew that something like this was possible, but seeing it actually happen is enraging, terrifying, devastating,” said Sakiyama, who also helped organize the protest. “I think it’s also going to strengthen people’s resolve. It’s a reminder of how lawless and how cruel this federal government is.”  

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that federal officers fired “defensive shots” after a man with a handgun approached them and “violently resisted” when officers tried to disarm him. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the man was a “lawful gun owner with a permit to carry,” according to the AP. 

Several bystander videos of the shooting emerged soon after. Pretti is seen with a phone in his hand, but no videos appear to show him with a visible weapon, according to the AP. 

This is a developing story and will be updated.