Minneapolis residents, angry and anxious, resolve to fight back as they mourn Alex Pretti

The temperature hovered around zero degrees as news crews and mourners stopped by the site where another Minneapolis resident was shot and killed by federal agents flooding the city to carry out the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

People put up makeshift barriers in the street immediately after the shooting on Saturday, blocking off traffic with wooden pallets, trash cans and furniture. Later, the city had put up a perimeter around the area in the aftermath of the shooting and protests against immigration agents that saw agents shooting chemical irritants and flash-bangs at people. Some of the debris from those weapons was still evident in the streets.

But on Sunday morning the streets were quiet, the makeshift barriers gone, though several police vehicles idled in the area. The city ended its security perimeter that had coralled the area and reopened traffic, calling off the presence of national guard troops it had asked for help. Overnight, the area was “calm and peaceful”, the city said.

At the scene, a tribute continued to grow – flowers, candles and signs stuck into the snowbank and on the asphalt – for Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old nurse who was observing ICE when he was killed. His death came less than three weeks after Renee Good, also 37, was killed by a federal agent in the city. In Minneapolis the scene of a growing vigil is now all too common.

Spray paint saying “ICE OUT” and “Fuck ICE” could be found throughout the area, on freeway overpasses and the sides of buildings. “RIP Alex,” signs at the shooting site said. People huddled in thick winter coats, one with a blanket wrapped around them, to pay their respects and keep watch on the memorial.

A Saturday evening vigil in the neighborhood drew many hundreds of people in subzero temperatures. They lit candles and grieved Pretti’s death and the ongoing turmoil agents have brought to the city. Around the state, people gathered in parks and on street corners to light candles in his memory. Nationwide, his death sparked protests.

“Last night, thousands of people came out to remember Alex Pretti and Renee Good,” Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey said on Twitter. “The memorials and gatherings were peaceful, and there were no arrests and no reports of burglaries or fires.”

Glam Doll Donuts, across the street from the shooting, posted a photo out its front windows, lined with signs saying ICE wasn’t welcome but everyone else was, on social media on Sunday morning. Bystander video from that location spread widely the day before. The owners wrote that this view out their windows, which they’ve had for almost 13 years, would “never be the same”. They said the shop would be open for a few hours on Sunday, with “minimal donuts”, as a place for anyone needing some warmth and community.

“The tragedies we continue to experience together are horrifying but our people are beyond beautiful and we don’t take your shit,” they wrote.

Minneapolis officials had immediately gone to the courts on Saturday after the shooting, seeking an immediate ruling on a temporary restraining order to stop federal agents’ activity in the city. On Sunday morning, new videos showing federal agents brawling with observers at an apartment building in north Minneapolis surfaced – a sign that ICE isn’t stopping, but neither are the people of Minneapolis.

“You guys suck so bad,” one person said to an agent in the video as car horns and whistles blared to alert residents that ICE was on the prowl. “You’re going to be in so much fucking prison.”

The unrelenting federal campaign on the city has residents angry and anxious, resolved to fight back but aware that their resistance continues to grow more dangerous after the deaths of two observers. Beyond those who have worked in the streets to follow, document and alert residents to agents, an unofficial network of neighbors many thousands deep continues to grow to take kids to school, deliver groceries and supplies to people who can’t leave home and organize rides for those not driving for fear of agents pulling them over.

RT Rybak, the former mayor of Minneapolis, wrote that this global spotlight for the city can show people how to unite in a “common purpose” of protecting each other. “A community uniting around the idea that everyone belongs does not mourn alone,” he wrote.

The federal government has shown no signs it will slow or stop its siege on the state, and it has defended agents’ actions without investigation, offering explanations that contradict the ample video evidence residents have gathered. They have blamed local officials, namely the governor and mayor, for not cooperating with agents.

The attorney general, Pam Bondi, sent a letter to Governor Tim Walz on Saturday issuing demands to the state, including turning over data on food assistance programs, ending sanctuary policies and turning over the state’s voting rolls.

Brian O’Hara, the Minneapolis police chief, told Face the Nation on Sunday that his officers were “stretched incredibly thin” and that the situation was untenable.

“This is the second American citizen that’s been killed, third shooting within three weeks,” he said. “People have been speaking out, saying that this was going to happen again. And I think everyone is kind of waiting for folks on both sides to come together and just figure this thing out. This is not sustainable.”