Minnesota governor calls on Trump to withdraw federal agents in wake of 2nd killing of US citizen

"I don't care if you are conservative and you are flying a Donald Trump flag, you're a Libertarian 'don't tread on me,' you're a Democratic Socialist of America, this is an inflection point, America," Walz said at a news conference, referring to the shooting death of Pretti, 37.

Walz said Pretti's shooting was unjustified based on video evidence showing that Pretti did not attack federal agents as President Donald Trump, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, FBI Director Kash Patel and US Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino have alleged.

The governor said Pretti was "beloved by his family" and was an upstanding citizen who was an "accomplished ICU nurse, skillful in ability to work with veterans, someone who's beloved by the community, (had) no criminal record, (and a) lawful firearms owner."

Several videos taken by witnesses show evidence contrary to the federal government's account of the deadly shooting. In the footage, Pretti is seen coming to the aid of a female protester after she was pushed to the ground by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent. Moments later, recordings show a federal agent pepper-spraying Pretti before agents wrestled him to the ground, where one agent removed a legally-owned handgun from him before another shot him multiple times.

"And you know what you saw," Walz continued, making reference to the video footage seen by millions around the world.

“And you know what you saw, and then you heard the most powerful people in the world, certainly in this country — the president, vice president, Greg Bovino, Kristi Noem — narrate to you what you were looking at, that this was a domestic terrorist, crazed, running at law enforcement with the intent to kill massive numbers of them, sullying his name within minutes of this event happening, and then closing the crime scene, sweeping away the evidence, defying a court order, and not allowing anyone to look at it."

"If we cannot all agree that (this is) the smearing of an American citizen and besmirching everything they stood for and asking us not to believe what we saw, I don't know what else to tell you," said Walz, referring to Trump not taking accountability for Pretti's death and referencing that the president was "sitting behind a keyboard at 2 am and besmirching a VA nurse and a son and a coworker and a friend."

This "is despicable beyond all description. This is not 'we need to see both sides.' This is not 'we need to wait for this.' This is basic human decency," Walz added, calling on Trump to stop the senseless killings of Americans by federal agents, including Renee Good, 37, who was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer on Jan. 7 in Minneapolis.

"There's one person who can end this now," said Walz. "(The Pretti) family has gone through enough, and to have the most powerful man in the world drag their dead son with absolutely no evidence, and gaslight the entire country, this is enough, and I would say, ‘President Trump, you can end this today.’"

In a court filing released Sunday, a witness to Pretti's killing also disputed the federal government's account that Pretti "violently resisted" before he was shot by an agent.

The witness, whose name was redacted in the court declaration, said Pretti was one of three protesters pepper sprayed by a Border Patrol agent as he attempted to help a woman who was pushed to the ground by an ICE agent.

"The ICE agents just kept spraying," the witness said in the court filing. "More agents came over and grabbed the man, who was still trying to help the woman get up."

The witness said the agents then pushed Pretti to the ground, adding that "it didn’t look like he was trying to resist, just trying to help the woman up."

A Minnesota judge has granted a temporary restraining order sought by local officials preventing Trump administration officials from destroying any evidence related to Pretti's fatal shooting. A hearing is scheduled for Monday.

Meanwhile, Democrats and Republicans alike are calling for accountability in Pretti's death.

Former Democratic President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama released a statement Sunday saying the fatal shooting of Pretti should be "a wake-up call to every American" that the nation's core values are "increasingly under assault."

"Federal law enforcement and immigration agents have a tough job. But Americans expect them to carry out their duties in a lawful, accountable way, and work with, rather than against, state and local officials to ensure public safety," said the Obamas. "That's not what we're seeing in Minnesota. In fact, we're seeing the opposite."

"These unprecedented tactics -- which even the former top lawyer of the Department of Homeland Security in the first Trump administration has characterized as embarrassing, lawless and cruel -- have now resulted in the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens," they continued, accusing the Trump administration of "escalating" tensions in Minnesota.

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis is demanding a "thorough and impartial investigation" of the incident, saying it is "the basic standard that law enforcement and the American people expect following any officer-involved shooting."

"For this specific incident, that requires cooperation and transparency between federal, state and local law enforcement," Tillis said in a statement. "Any administration official who rushes to judgment and tries to shut down an investigation before it begins (is) doing an incredible disservice to the nation and to President Trump’s legacy."