Trump's playbook falters in response to Minnesota killing

After another protester is slain by federal agents, administration's blunt denial of evidence poses political peril

- By Michael Wilner

A RESIDENT at a memorial Sunday near where federal agents shot Alex Pretti a day earlier in Minneapolis.

(ROBERTO SCHMIDT AFP/Getty Images)

The Trump administration has blamed the death of an American citizen at the hands of immigration agents in Minnesota on the victim within hours of their killing for the second time this month, calling Alex Jeffrey Pretti an "assassin" and "domestic terrorist" without opening an independent investigation.

Videos that emerged of Pretti's killing enraged the public. Government lines justifying the use of lethal force prompted blowback among staunch Republican supporters and conservative groups. Negotiations in Congress to thwart another shutdown were upended over Immigration and Customs Enforcement funding. And a Trump-appointed judge blocked the administration from attempting to destroy evidence in the case, lending weight to fears of a cover-up.

It is new terrain for Trump, whose handling of immigration had been a rare bright spot in polling of his job performance throughout his first year back in ofPretti’s family said in a statement Saturday that “the sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting.”

“Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs,” the family said. “He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed.”

The shooting has sparked a legal fight over control of the investigation.

Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said Saturday that federal officers refused to let his agency’s investigators access the scene of the shooting even after they obtained a judicial warrant.