Asked today what she would say to Pretti’s parents, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said: “Just that I’m grieved for them”.
she told Fox News: “I truly am. I can’t even imagine losing a child”.
While continuing to defend the agents’ actions, her tone was markedly different from a day earlier, when she repeatedly told a briefing that Pretti had attacked law enforcement and “was there to perpetuate violence”.
She said today that more clarity would come as an investigation into the incident continues.
Deputy Attorney-General Todd Blanche, speaking to NBC also said an investigation was necessary to get a full understanding of the killing.
Asked if agents had already removed the pistol from Pretti when they fired on him, Blanche said: “I do not know. And nobody else knows, either. That’s why we’re doing an investigation.”
‘Joint’ probe
Their comments came after multiple senators from US President Donald Trump’s Republican Party called for a thorough probe into the killing, and for co-operation with local authorities.
“There must be a full joint federal and state investigation,” Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said.
The Trump Administration controversially excluded local investigators from a probe into Good’s killing.
Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz said that the “federal Government cannot be trusted to lead this investigation. The state will handle it, period.”
The Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee requested that top officials testify at public hearings.
Thousands of federal immigration agents have been deployed to heavily Democratic Minneapolis for weeks, after conservative media reported on alleged fraud by Somali immigrants - racially tinged accusations that Trump has repeatedly amplified.
The city, known for its bitterly cold winters, has one of the country’s highest concentrations of Somali immigrants.
Court order
Since the beginning of “Operation Metro Surge,” many residents have begun carrying whistles to notify others of the presence of immigration agents, while sometimes violent skirmishes have broken out between the officers and protesters.
Following the latest killing, Walz and other local officials reiterated their call for the agents to leave immediately.
Local authorities have sued the federal Government seeking a court order to suspend the operation, with a first hearing set for tomorrow.
A federal judge yesterday ordered the Trump Administration not to destroy or alter any evidence from the Pretti killing.
Recent polling has shown voters increasingly upset with Trump’s domestic immigration operations, as videos of masked agents seizing people off footpaths - including children - and dramatic stories of US citizens being detained proliferate.
Barack and Michelle Obama today forcefully condemned the killing of Pretti, saying in a joint statement it should be a “wake-up call” that core US values “are increasingly under assault”.
The former US President and first lady blasted Trump and his Government as seeming “eager to escalate the situation”, demanding they work with Walz and other local officials.
-Agence France-Presse
