President Trump told the Wall Street Journal his administration is reviewing all aspects of the Minneapolis shooting that killed nurse Alex Pretti.<\/b>
\nPresident Trump confirmed his administration is \u00ab\u00a0reviewing everything\u00a0\u00bb in the wake of the Minneapolis shooting that left 37-year-old nurse Alex J. Pretti dead.
Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Trump stopped short of confirming whether the federal agent who fired the fatal shots on Jan. 24 acted appropriately.
\u00ab\u00a0We\u2019re looking, we\u2019re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination\u00a0\u00bb, Trump told the outlet as questions mounted over the incident and the broader immigration operation in the city.
Pretti, an ICU nurse, was shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent while filming federal officers on a Minneapolis street.
The officer’s operation was targeting Jose Huerta-Chuma, an illegal immigrant with a criminal history including domestic assault for intentional conflict bodily harm, disorderly conduct and driving without a valid license.
Federal officials initially claimed Pretti approached agents with a 9 mm handgun and resisted disarmament.
Bystander video and eyewitness accounts circulating online raised questions about that version of events and whether Pretti was threatening officers when he was shot.
\u00ab\u00a0I don\u2019t like any shooting. I don\u2019t like it\u00a0\u00bb, Trump said, adding that Pretti carried \u00ab\u00a0a very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines\u2026 That doesn\u2019t play good either.\u00a0\u00bb
Trump also tied the federal presence in Minnesota to what he described as a sprawling welfare-fraud scandal in the state, arguing that immigration enforcement was necessary to address broader abuses.
\u00ab\u00a0It\u2019s the biggest fraud anyone has seen\u00a0\u00bb, the president said.
The fraud claims in the state have been a central part of the administration’s need to ramp up federal operations there.
The Minneapolis shooting of Pretti also marked the second death that happened in a confrontation between federal immigration officers and civilians in the city.
Renee Good was shot and killed on Jan. 7 by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent during a different operation.
That incident fueled protests and spotlighted the role of ICE in domestic law enforcement actions.
\u00ab\u00a0At some point we will leave. We\u2019ve done, they\u2019ve done a phenomenal job\u00a0\u00bb, Trump said without offering a time frame for when agents might depart.
\u00ab\u00a0We\u2019ll leave a different group of people there for the financial fraud\u00a0\u00bb, he told the outlet.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has also stressed cooperation among law enforcement as essential.
\u00ab\u00a0Nobody, including President Trump, wants to see people get shot or hurt\u00a0\u00bb, Leavitt said, urging officials to work more closely with the administration in addressing undocumented individuals living in the country illegally.<\/p>\n