President Trump declined to say whether the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot a man in Minnesota acted appropriately, instead saying the incident is under review.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal published late Sunday, Mr. Trump did not directly answer whether the officer involved in the shooting handled the situation correctly, despite being asked the question twice.
When pressed further, Mr. Trump said the incident is being investigated by the administration.
“We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump also criticized Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old Minneapolis ICU nurse who was killed during a protest Saturday. Mr. Pretti was protesting ICE activity in the city at the time of the shooting. Federal officials say he was carrying a gun, but there appears to be no evidence that he pulled a gun on ICE agents.
The president said Mr. Pretti should not have been carrying a gun while protesting.
“I don’t like any shooting. I don’t like it,” Mr. Trump told the outlet. “But I don’t like it when somebody goes into a protest and he’s got a very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines loaded up with bullets also. That doesn’t play good either.”
Mr. Trump said that Mr. Pretti was carrying a “very dangerous gun, a dangerous and unpredictable gun.”
“It’s a gun that goes off when people don’t know it,” the president said.
After the shooting, the Department of Homeland Security defended the officer. DHS also said Mr. Pretti “violently resisted” being disarmed, and said the federal agent fired “defensive shots.”
A video circulating online appears to show an agent firing several rounds at Mr. Pretti after another agent pulls a handgun away from him.
Mr. Trump also suggested he was open to withdrawing ICE agents from Minnesota, a move that has gained support from Republicans following Mr. Pretti’s shooting death. Democrats, including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have also implored Mr. Trump to remove ICE from the state.
“At some point, we will leave. We’ve done – they’ve done a phenomenal job,” Mr. Trump said. “We’ll leave a different group of people there for the financial fraud.”
Mr. Trump did not offer a timeline for when the agents might depart. On Monday, he dispatched border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota.
Rep. James Comer, Kentucky Republican, said Mr. Trump should pull ICE agents out of Minnesota, saying the operation was putting agents in danger.
“If I were President Trump, I would almost think about, ’OK, if the mayor and the governor are going to put our ICE officials in harm’s way and there’s a chance of losing more innocent lives, then maybe go to another city,’” Mr. Comer said during a Fox News Interview on Sunday.
Mr. Comer said the situation in Minnesota is “only going to get worse,” and it would be better for immigration agents to be deployed to cities where they “would be better received.”
