A majority of Minnesotans say federal agents did the wrong thing in the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti
By a 34-point margin, Minnesotans said the ICE agent was wrong in the Renee Good shooting. A statewide probability survey finds the Pretti margin even wider.
By Craig Helmstetter
On Jan. 7, Renee Nicole Good, a poet and mother, was shot and killed in Minneapolis by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross. Just over two weeks later, only six blocks away, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an ICU nurse with the Veterans Administration, was fatally shot by federal Border Patrol agents Jesus Ochoa and Raymundo Gutierrez.
Both were U.S. citizens who were monitoring activities related to the federal government’s immigration major enforcement action in Minnesota, dubbed Operation Metro Surge.
The shootings sparked mass protests, impromptu memorials, and sharp disputes between the Trump administration and eyewitness accounts over what happened.
Trump administration officials defended the shootings, saying the agents acted in self-defense, and quickly announced that the federal government would lead an investigation into Good’s death. Meanwhile, the state’s Democratic leaders – including Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey – decried the shootings and called for the state to lead the investigations.
What did Minnesotans think about the shootings, and who did they want leading the investigations?
Lumaris Research’s latest Minnesota Community Survey, conducted Jan. 22 to Feb. 12, found that considerably more Minnesotans said the ICE agent did the wrong thing than the right thing in the shooting of Good, by a 34-point margin (60% vs. 26%). The margin was even wider in the shooting of Pretti: 56% said agents did the wrong thing, compared with 13% who said they did the right thing, a 43-point gap."
