On Jan. 24, federal agents shot and killed Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti, a Department of Veterans Affairs nurse, just two weeks after Renee Good was killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent while fleeing in her vehicle. After video footage spread showing Pretti attempting to defend a woman who was shoved to the ground before his death, people across the nation — including in Lane County — erupted in anger, taking to the streets and calling for lawmakers to abolish ICE.
Footage appears to show a federal agent removing Pretti’s legally carried firearm before he was shot. There were already near-daily protests at the Eugene Federal Building, and now, between Good and Pretti’s deaths, there are nonstop protests standing up to the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrants.
“It’s sickening,” Erica Wright, a protester said outside the Federal Building Jan. 24. “There’s clear evidence of what happened,” she said of Pretti’s shooting, “and for them to cover it up just shows that they will go to any extent to cover up lies, mistakes and murders.”
On Jan. 20, less than a week before Pretti’s death, activists with the Party for Socialism and Liberation gathered at the Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza to host a “People’s State of the City.” The event was in response to Eugene’s State of the City address one week earlier, where Mayor Kaarin Knudson and city officials spoke of Eugene’s success in public safety, business, art and more. It also took place on the one year anniversary of Trump’s second inauguration.
At PSL’s event, five speakers took to the stage and told a crowd of about 35 people what Eugene needs to do better. “We cannot simply ignore that some harm has been coming directly from our own local government for years and the inability they’ve shown recently in terms of combating the federal government’s agenda,” said Kamryn Stringfield, PSL organizer.
Later that day, hundreds of people protested ICE at the downtown Eugene Federal Building — including more than 100 students who walked out of South Eugene High School and Monroe Middle School as part of the Free America Walkout. The day ended with a brief standoff between Department of Homeland Security officers and several protesters, including students, at the vehicle exit of the Federal Building as protesters blocked DHS officers from leaving. The standoff ended with no use of force.
“I was scared,” said Asucena Velasquez, a Monroe Middle School student. “We’re kids and you’re threatening us with guns.” One DHS officer was wearing riot gear and holding a pepper ball launcher.
Just four days later, Pretti was killed.
Almost immediately after news of Pretti’s death broke, emergency protests took place at the downtown Federal Building on Jan. 24 and Jan. 25. At the Jan. 24 protest, the anger among the peaceful crowd was palpable as protesters reeled over the violence at the hands of federal officers.
Just 26 minutes after Pretti was killed, the official DHS X (formerly Twitter) account claimed that Pretti “violently resisted” and wrote, “fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, an agent fired defensive shots.” The post went on to frame Pretti as aggressive, pointing out that he was carrying a firearm with two magazines and no identification.
“What’s even worse than what was a public execution is the administration lying about it even though we have video proof,” says protester Tyler Briggs.
Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security, called Pretti a “domestic terrorist” and claimed he came to the protest to violently assault law enforcement officers. No existing video evidence shows Pretti attempting to assault anyone with his firearm.
At the Jan. 24 protest, part of the crowd broke off from the main group and marched to the Lane County Public Service Building to attend a town hall meeting with Knudson and state representatives Julie Fahey, Nancy Nathanson and Lisa Fragala, and state senators James Manning Jr. and Floyd Prozanski.
There, tensions escalated as protesters told Knudson and the representatives to get ICE out. One protester shouted, “Utilize your Second Amendment rights against ICE.” The crowd eventually calmed and a question-and-answer session proceeded.
The next day, Jan. 25, a much larger crowd of more than 1,000 people gathered at the Federal Building as news of Pretti’s death spread and video emerged contradicting DHS claims about the event. Here, the anger was even stronger. “We gotta abolish ICE,” Briggs says. “If you’re not saying abolish ICE at this point, you are never going to and you are a part of the problem.”
Protester Lydia Stroud, 17, says she’s scared that ICE will target her and her family. “My grandmother is an immigrant and my father is an immigrant, and so I’m nervous that my own family is going to one day disappear, and I’m not going to know where they are.”
Despite this, Stroud says she feels hopeful when she sees so many people standing up against ICE and the Trump administration. “It helps me realize that, like I’m not alone in this, and nobody is alone in this,” she says. “There’s this whole community that supports you and loves you.”