The Current - Another fatal shooting by ICE agents in Minneapolis

Episode Date: January 26, 2026

On Saturday morning, 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Jeffrey Pretti was shot and killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis. This is the second fatal shooting by a federal agent in that city this month. We speak with the former mayor of Minneapolis R. T. Rybak about what is happening in his city and how the community is coming together to try and protect each other.

Hey, it's me, Gavin Crawford, host of the Because News podcast. If you're looking for some kind of group therapy for the news, well, we've got you. On Because News, I quiz the brightest and funniest Canadians about what's going on in the world, all in front of a live audience. So whether you spent the week quoting aphorisms of Thucydides or binge-watching heated rivalry, we'll catch you up on the Canadian headlines. Follow us wherever you get your fine podcasts for free. This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast. I just saw a video of more than six masked agents,

pummeling one of our constituents and shooting him to death. That's the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Fry. On Saturday morning, U.S. federal agents shot and killed 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Preti in Minneapolis. It comes less than three weeks after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good. Federal officials said Prettie approached them, armed, and that agent, fired at him in self-defense, but eyewitness videos seem to contradict those federal official accounts. Mayor Fry has called for an end to ICE in his city. This administration and everyone involved in this operation should be reflecting.

They should be reflecting right now and asking themselves, what exactly are you accomplishing? Are you standing up for American families right now, or are we tearing them apart? R.T. Ryback was the mayor of Minneapolis from 2002 to 2014. He is in Minneapolis this morning. Good morning. Good morning. How would you describe what it has been like in Minneapolis over the last few weeks? You know, I'd like to not be dramatic about it, but the fact of the matter is it does feel very much like being in an occupied city. There are two exceptions to that. The exceptions are the fact that. The exceptions are the fact, that Minnesotans are incredibly united, especially those of us in Minneapolis. And along with the incredible amount of volunteering on it, life is going on.

We are going to work and doing things, most of us. But I think the real thing is you go into a coffee shop, and there are diapers and personal supplies that neighbors are coming to deliver. They're over in the other corner as a group that's strategizing how to use their signal channel to track ice. And it's a city in resistance, which is, I think, beyond what I could have ever imagined. But I also am incredibly moved by how people in this town have said, there is no way ever, ever that we will be broken. We're Minnesotans. We're like Canadians. We survive tough winters and we are in it. In the face of that, what was your response when you learned that ICE had killed another resident of your city?

Wow. You know, I think we've been beyond words for a while, but I think I went very quickly to incredible rage, certainly at the president, but also at those who are supporting him and those who are staying quiet. thankfully I'm in a city where 50,000 people marched in 10 below weather. So there aren't all that many people at this point who are supporting the president. These policies are wildly unpopular in the country right now. And we're getting great support from other places. But when you see my son is same age, has a beard, lives 10 blocks from that site,

you personalize it and then you realize I'm a white guy so it's much much worse because the heinous part of this is these vigilantes are driving around and seemingly looking just for people of color and I call them vigilantes because they're masked no idea how do we know I mean I guess they're from ice but you don't know you mentioned the resistance can you just describe what that a user way to get what the resistance looks like what what have you seen from your community in response to this? What you really see is something that you didn't see for most of this year in the United States.

A lot of people were sitting on the couch waiting for someone to save us. What's happened here is that pretty much everybody understands they have some role. So it means that now as the dawn comes, we'll have parents getting ready to walk their kids to the bus stop or school, pick up teachers to bring them there, child care surrounded by parents as well. Some are going to work. Most are going to work. However, there are people hiding in their houses.

And so tens of thousands of food meals are being delivered. And then everywhere I go, there's a... conversation about what what's the next step and it's now gotten very tactical. I think we all recognize how deeply, deeply wrongness is. The question is, am I one who's going to deliver the meals or this or that or am I, that guy I just passed a few minutes ago on the street corner at a cold morning just holding up the sign for ice to get out? He had a word on there that started with F as well. and everybody realizes they can do something and a lot of people aren't. You wrote on Facebook, these are your words.

I am so completely enraged right now, but also remember what it took to repair the destruction after George Floyd's murder. Tell me about that repair and what you see not as an opportunity, but in light of what happened after the murder of George Floyd, what you see unfolding now that's possible. Yeah. I run the Minneapolis Foundation, the Community Foundation here, and the destruction after George Floyd's murder, and by the way, a lot of the people who may well be in these masks were some of the Boogaloo boys and others who came in and been destruction here. But in any case, there was great physical destruction at that time. So what happened is our community foundation, Minneapolis Foundation, wants to restore, we don't. reimagined fund. So we helped pay for getting boards up on the windows. Then we help pay for getting the stores open to do small business loans. And then we really invested in making sure the business got

better. The reimagined part got really interesting because at that moment we got banks and philanthropy and government to the table and said, why do we have these racial gaps in this community that has done so many things so well and that's so poorly. So we got the banks to say, well, we don't want to make these loans because they're too risky, philanthropy put in a little to de-risk it. Everybody took a little bit and now we've mobilized one billion in capital. This is a little different because that was a war within ourselves, how we do policing. This is a federal government declaring war on a city. We will be making a couple announcements today about some pretty big philanthropic investments going out to help with health care and food and businesses and such. But I do think there is a way to

rebuild after this and build it even in a more just way. But we also have to simply have a different interaction from the White House. Is that how it feels that the federal government has declared war on your city? Absolutely. The federal government has declared war on the city of Minneapolis. And they've done it in a very brutal way. And they've killed two people, shot three people. And the brutal tactics are random, illegal, and as,

somebody who directed a police force as a mayor, I wasn't the chief, but my job was to see what was right or wrong. Their tactics violate, and any public safety official will tell you they violate any form of public safety. And this is not about de-escalating. What would you want to see from the rest of the country? Donald Trump was elected on, in part, hardline immigration policies, this master deportation policy.

But to your point, what is unfolding? right now, the polling shows, is wildly unpopular. What would you want to see from the rest of the country in light of what's happening in your town right now? I want the rest of the country to get their elected officials to stand up. I would say, you know, we have these great senators here. They are Democrats. They are doing good work.

But when you get into other states that supported him and have Republican senators who are at best zombies and at worst collaborating on this, they need to recognize that this violates every single principle of what we are as Americans. President Obama removed many, many immigrants from this country who were here illegally, but he used the law. And I would like to see him, it's a low bar for the Republican members of Congress to recognize of the law is being violated. But, you know, we're getting phenomenal support

for much of the country as well. Have you seen a change in mood when it comes to, I mean, Minneapolis is a Democratic city, but there are Republicans who live there. There are people who voted for Donald Trump. Have you seen a change in mood with Republicans over how the administration is going about immigration enforcement and what's unfolding in Minneapolis right now?

Yeah, yeah. You know, there's always been a couple types of Republicans there are MAGA Republicans and then there are traditional Republicans. The MAGA Republicans, I don't think, are moving, but that's not by any stretch of imagination the majority of this country. The more moderate Republicans will tell you, oh, I really disagree with this. Well, do something. And a number are right now.

So, you know, the president's support right now sits with that MAGA base that I think is getting not the best information from Fox News and still even on some of those outlets that are very conservative and I would argue slanted, some of those outlets are beginning to report the reality. I think it's impossible to look at the videos that have come out on these two shootings in Minneapolis and not see that these people, these ice folks are violating public safety principles in humanity, I would add. We're out of time, but let me just end with, in that Facebook post, you wrote, as the battered souls of Minneapolis are finding our common ground, we can help a nation

in search of its values find its soul. What does that mean that you can help the nation find its soul? I would never wish this on any city, but I would say that this had to happen in any city, it should be Minneapolis, because we've stood up. We've not been violent, but we've said that this is a place where everybody belongs. Immigrants made this country. Immigrants are very much a part of this country. And Minneapolis has always stood for that, and it's standing strong in the worst of situations.

And I believe, from what I'm hearing around the country, people are seeing us in Minneapolis. It's a real inspiration for where this country needs to go. Return to what we used to be, that we can be much better than that. I think Minneapolis is showing it. R.T. Ryback, good to speak with you. Thank you very much. And thank you to the people of Canada who are the friends in Minneapolis.

You're upstairs neighboring. We love you. R.T. Raback was the mayor of Minneapolis from 2002 to 2014. He was in Minneapolis this morning. This has been the current podcast. You can hear our show Monday to Friday on CBC Radio 1 at 8.30 a.m. at all time zones. You can also listen online at CBC. dotCA slash the current or on the CBC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Matt Galloway.

Thanks for listening. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.ca slash podcasts.