The two federal agents who opened fire on a Veterans Affairs nurse in Minneapolis have been placed on leave, an official with the Department of Homeland Security said on Wednesday, as more voices, including some in the Republican Party, broke with the White House over its handling of the fatal shooting.
It was unclear if the department had taken any action regarding the other agents involved in the encounter with the nurse, Alex Pretti, including those who had helped restrain him before the two agents fired about 10 bullets into his back and as he slumped onto the street. The agents have been on leave since the shooting, the official said — something the White House had not previously disclosed.
A Department of Homeland Security official said that the two agents involved in the shooting hade been on leave since the Pretti shooting and that statements made earlier by Greg Bovino saying they were working were inaccurate. Bovino, a Border Patrol official who had been overseeing the immigration crackdown in Minneapolist, is being moved out by the Trump administration.
Mayor Kaohly Her of St. Paul, Minn., met with Tom Homan, the White House border czar on Wednesday, as local leaders continued to press the Trump administration to end its immigration operation in Minnesota. “I reinforced the importance of immigrants and refugees to the fabric of our community,” the mayor, who came to the United States as a refugee from Laos, said in a statement. Homan met on Tuesday with Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis.
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