MINNEAPOLIS, Jan 25, (AP): Democrats demanded that federal immigration officers leave Minnesota after a US Border Patrol agent fatally shot a man in Minneapolis, drawing hundreds of protesters onto the frigid streets and increasing tensions in a city already shaken by another shooting death weeks earlier. Family members identified the man who was killed as Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse who protested President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in his city.

After the shooting, an angry crowd gathered and protesters clashed with federal officers, who wielded batons and deployed flash bangs. The Minnesota National Guard was assisting local police at the direction of Gov Tim Walz, officials said. Guard troops were sent to both the shooting site and a federal building where officers have squared off with demonstrators daily.

Information about what led up to the shooting was limited, Police Chief Brian O’Hara said. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that federal officers were conducting an operation and fired "defensive shots” after a man with a handgun approached them and "violently resisted” when they tried to disarm him. 

In bystander videos of the shooting that emerged soon after, Pretti is seen with a phone in his hand but none appears to show him with a visible weapon. O'Hara said police believe he was a "lawful gun owner with a permit to carry.” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said during a news conference that Pretti had shown up to "impede a law enforcement operation.”

She questioned why he was armed but did not offer details about whether Pretti drew the weapon or brandished it at officers. The officer who shot him is an eight-year Border Patrol veteran, federal officials said. The president weighed in on social media by lashing out at Walz and the Minneapolis mayor. He shared images of the gun that immigration officials said was recovered and said: "What is that all about? Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers?” Trump, a Republican, said the Democratic governor and mayor are "are inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric.”