As I think about this now, I can only say that I never thought we would be where we are in such a short amount of time. As I watched the news play out on MSNBC, inbetween charging batteries, and fielding text messages, like others I saw the standoff. Saw what I thought was peaceful--and yes angry--because a man was murdered, and what we heard from the government we knew we couldn't trust. We needed to see everything with our own eyes, and the rhetoric and politicizing was already beginning.
And this was just a little more than two weeks after Renée Good was shot, murdered as she was driving away with her partner, by a federal ICE agent.
And then it rang true. Alex Pretti had a conceal and carry permit. He lawfully was able to have a gun. He didn't point it at anyone. He was trying to get away, pulled back by ICE, to get disarmed and murdered. If he would have shot in self-defense he would have been seen as the aggressor, a murderer. A domestic terrorist. Everything ICE, Bovino, and Kristy Noem were saying he was, even though he was not.
If murder alone was not enough, it was also trying to be covered up in front of our eyes in real-time. Together they are the fuel that has brought so many people together to grieve, to mourn, and to fight.
Below are pictures after the first standoff between protesters and federal agents after Alex Pretti was shot and murdered. These were taken on Nicollet Ave AKA Eat Street in the hours after the shooting on 1/24/2026.
Click on an image for a larger picture.
