Georgia Sen. Warnock to visit Alex Pretti memorial, meet with faith leaders after Minneapolis shooting
Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock plans to travel to Minneapolis Tuesday to visit a memorial for Alex Pretti and meet with faith leaders, CBS News has confirmed. The trip comes days after Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse at the Department of Veterans Affairs, was shot and killed Saturday in south Minneapolis by a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
The Department of Homeland Security said the agent acted in self-defense while attempting to disarm Pretti. Local officials have disputed that account, pointing to bystander video that appears to show Pretti holding a cellphone, not a gun, in the moments before he was shot.
Pretti was a U.S. citizen born in Illinois. Court records show he had no criminal history, and his family said he had no prior encounters with law enforcement beyond minor traffic tickets.
The shooting occurred less than three weeks after another fatal incident in Minneapolis involving a federal immigration agent. Renee Good was killed earlier this month, raising concerns among city leaders about what they describe as an expanded federal immigration presence and the lack of transparency surrounding enforcement operations.
Warnock has responded with sharp criticism of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a series of posts on X, calling the agency a threat to American freedoms. He accused ICE of operating without sufficient oversight and violating constitutional rights.
"I can't think of something more un-American than a federal law enforcement agency that can enter homes without a judicial warrant, patrol our streets in unmarked vehicles and demand papers at random," Warnock wrote.
In additional posts, Warnock said he plans to vote against funding for ICE, accusing the agency of killing Americans, detaining children and tearing families apart.
"We are losing our humanity," he wrote. "This is a defining moment for our nation. A moment for moral courage. We must stand together and say no ... Trump has turned our streets into a war zone."
Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff also weighed in, issuing a statement condemning what he called civil liberties abuses by the Trump administration. Ossoff cited reports of masked federal agents detaining U.S. citizens, conducting warrantless raids and setting up identification checkpoints.
"Americans left, right and center are shocked by these abuses of civil liberties," Ossoff said. "My opponents have a clear choice: stand with Trump or stand with Americans' constitutional rights."
California Congressman Ro Khanna also visited the city of Minneapolis on Monday, and stopped by the Pretti vigil. The shooting remains under investigation.