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911 transcripts reveal firsthand accounts of Alex Pretti being shot, ensuing chaos

Paul Walsh, The Minnesota Star Tribune on

Published in News & Features

MINNEAPOLIS — One 911 caller said he saw federal agents shoot a man 10 times. Another reported a dumpster being set ablaze by a flash-bang, while someone else said intruders were clambering to a rooftop above the smoke-filled mayhem as conflict engulfed Nicollet Avenue.

These accounts and others fielded by Minneapolis emergency dispatchers are spelled out in transcripts of 911 calls provided by the city to the Minnesota Star Tribune. Collectively, they stitch together the chaos in the moments after federal agents killed Alex Pretti nearly three weeks ago.

Pretti’s death came 17 days after another 37-year-old Minneapolis resident, Renee Good, was shot to death by a federal agent on Portland Avenue. Combined, they motivated marches, protests and vigils as the world’s eyes turned toward the city while the White House’s deportation crackdown pressed ahead before border czar Tom Homan announced this week the beginning of the mission’s drawdown.

“ICE just shot somebody out on 26th and Nicollet,” were the first words shortly after 9 a.m. from a caller to 911. “Ten times in the chest.” Twice he repeated the number of shots and their location before the call ended.

“And he was on the ground,” the man continued. “And they’re still like trying to detain him.”

He estimated there were 30 federal agents on the scene rounding up people.

“They’re taking the agent who shot [him] out of the scene right now,” the man said.

About 10 shots were fired by agents, according to a Minnesota Star Tribune analysis of video recorded at the scene.

Another witness told 911, “I have video evidence [of] ICE shooting him on the ground after already being apprehended. ... He just murdered a man right on the [expletive] street.”

He went on to say, “No handcuffs, but he was on the ground, and he was being punched in the face while he’s on the ground, and then another agent pulled ... his sidearm, pulled his gun out and just [expletive] laid him out.”

The caller volunteered that “I’m a legal citizen. I was born in Virginia Beach.”

“I understand,” the dispatcher said. “I do not need to know your immigration status.”

One more witness to the shooting, after getting through to 911 on his fourth try, said, “I was present and filming it and, uh, yeah, sorry. A little rattled.”

The dispatcher started taking down the man’s name but was forced to pause: “Give me one second. We’ve got a lot of people calling about this.”

The dispatcher then assured the man an officer would call him back.

Some callers relayed their concerns about the physical well-being of others caught up in the loud and frenetic disorder up and down the block.

“A man ... is requesting an ambulance, he’s being detained by ICE,” said the caller, who described himself to the dispatcher as a “citizen, like you, concerned about our community members.”

He said the man is “surrounded and screaming his name ... and he’s stating he needs emergency assistance now.”

The dispatcher responded that “we do have a call in for an ambulance to get in there as soon as we can, OK?”

 

“Thank you so much,” the man replied.

A woman called to say someone was trapped in a car and struggling to breathe from the chemical irritants being fired by federal agents.

“She wasn’t at all part of the protest,” said the caller, who added the woman had a kidney dialysis treatment scheduled for that afternoon. “She just got a flat tire at the wrong time.”

The caller said she was with the woman, but “I had to get out of there. I was trying to help, but I had to go.”

The dispatcher took the phone number for the stranded woman and said to the caller, “We have responders on the way to check on her.”

Dispatch took one call from a man who said he saw agents ignite a trash bin with what he described as a flash-bang device. The dispatcher had the man repeat his contention.

“They started a fire in the dumpster,” he said. “They shot a flash-bang into a dumpster that people were standing next to. ... It burst into flames immediately. Um, and then they started advancing on the crowd, when I was standing, um, among very few people.”

He said the agents “flooded the whole street with tear gas, and ... nobody was doing anything to ... incite that at all.”

An apartment building owner told 911 about “people that are getting into our building. It’s part of the protest, according to our tenants. ... They’re getting into the common residential hallways.”

The dispatcher wanted to know how many people the caller saw, but he said he was not there and was getting word from his tenants.

A second call came from the same address about people “on top of the building.”

“Do you know how they got up there?” the dispatcher asked.

“Well, there’s one roof that’s not too far up,” said the caller, who also was not at the scene. “And then there’s ladder access to the next roof. ... I just have reports from my tenants in the building that are starting to get rather nervous about people ... getting into the building.”

At one point, as the reports kept coming in, one caller was worried about not seeing any local law enforcement response.

“We have a lot of responders on the scene there right now,” the dispatcher said.

“I’m not seeing anyone, but thank you,” the caller said, then he exclaimed, “It’s Afghanistan — this is insane!”

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—Liz Sawyer of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this report.


©2026 The Minnesota Star Tribune. Visit at startribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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