Frigid cold can't tamp down protesters' anger over latest shooting by immigration agents

Whatever exhaustion the American people might have been feeling over the daily onslaught of distressing news recently was put aside on Sunday when folks around the state turned out in large numbers in sub-zero wind chills to protest the shooting death of Alex Pretti by immigration agents on a Minneapolis sidewalk the previous day.

Green Bay reported 1500-2000 protesters while between 200 and 300 (with some estimates as high as 500) people descended on Houdini Plaza in Appleton, many arriving a half-hour before the official start time of 12:30. Wind chills hovering at -9 degrees little dissuaded protesters who seemed warmed by the near-constant honks of support from passing cars. 

By 1 p.m. protesters lined both sides of College from west of Appleton Street down to Oneida Street.

“I can be both overwhelmed and angry and just so worried about the future of this country and for my grandkids,” said Sue from underneath a furlined parka hood, her face exposed only from her eyebrows to her chin. “I was at the No Kings Rally (in April) and like that, this gives me hope. It really does.

“It’s energizing but it’s sad that we have to be here at the same time.”

Sue said she was at first hesitant when she stepped outside and felt the polar vortex whipping her in the face.

“But, you know, I had to look at the people in Minneapolis and what they are going through and say, I can do this. But it is a sad feeling. I’ve got a heavy heart.”

Video, photos, eyewitness accounts at odds with administration's narrative

It had been just 17 days since Renee Good was shot three times and killed by an immigration agent in Minneapolis. Coroners have ruled it a homicide, stating that the first two shots merely wounded Good. They determined that the third and fatal shot, fired directly through Good’s side window, came with Jonathan Ross well clear of any danger he might have felt earlier.

Like with the Good shooting, the administration’s rush to grab the narrative in the killing of the 37-year-old VA intensive care unit nurse resulted in an account of events that seems contradicted by sworn eyewitness accounts, video and exhaustive frame-by-frame analysis of the shooting. 

Pretti, a Green Bay Prebble graduate, had a legally holstered gun which he never reached for during the altercation. In an attempt to help a woman being tear-gassed he appears to pull her from the street while holding a camera in one hand as he raises his other hand to demonstrate peaceable intentions. 

A half-dozen agents then drag him to the ground and appear to repeatedly hit him. One agent appears to grab Pretti’s gun from his holster and walk away. Another agent suddenly shoots Pretti, seeming to prompt several other agents – perhaps startled by the gunshot – to also begin firing. They eventually shoot 10 times while he lay prone on the sidewalk.

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to not destroy any evidence they took from the scene. Like with the Good shooting the federal government seems unwilling to cooperate with state investigators, raising further suspicion as well as the anger levels of many Americans.

‘Not the world we wanted’

“What I just saw was a guy get murdered for trying to help someone else,” said Carol. “And then our government just lies and covers it up and tells us, ‘hey, that didn’t happen.’ I’m just sick of it all. Kids getting taken, old men getting taken from their homes half-dressed. This is just not the world we wanted.

“I have four grandkids and this makes me so angry and afraid for them.”

Ken, who came with Carol, said he was almost nostalgic for Trump’s first term.

“Yeah, I’d love to go back to him just tweeting stupid stuff,” he said. “But that’s not where we are.”

Carol said she was motivated to brave the cold after watching Minnesotans turn out in droves during sub-arctic temps over the previous week.

“We’re sticking with the people of Minnesota,” she insisted. “They have been doing this for weeks. So yeah, we can stand the cold for a little while.”

Danny was attending his first rally, though he is a political activist. He said he had been trying to take a break from the news recently to maintain his mental health. But this was too much, he said. 

“I’ve been focusing more on football,” he admitted. “But obviously, when I saw this yesterday, it was just too much and I wanted to do something and make a difference. I'm not a big protester in general but I'm really glad I did. I'm really energized, and it's good to see that there's so many like-minded people.

“We tend to focus on the awful people in the world. And you get on your computer and you think you're alone, and then you come out here and you realize, not at all. There's so many really good people who care about the right things.”

Heather said she braved the cold because she thinks the administration wants people to surrender their power through exhaustion.

“Yeah, I think we can't just sit at home and think it's happening somewhere else,” she said. “They want us to feel like we don't have any power. And we do and that's why I'm here. And I've been here before, and I'll keep coming.”

‘Everything they say is a lie’

People held signs and rally organizers led chants through their megaphones.

“Show us what democracy looks like,” one call began, as the crowd responded with, “This is what democracy looks like.” 

Other chants included calls for the end of ICE and denouncements of racism.

Michael was on hand with his mom and dad as well as his wife. He said he thinks the path we are on was inevitable once Trump regained the White House.

“(Pretti) is a human being,” he said. “The videos make it pretty clear that it wasn't justified, that's for sure.”

As for the administration’s accounts of the shooting, he shrugged.

“Everything they say is a lie,” he said “They say one thing when clearly pictures and evidence show the other. It doesn't matter how you call them out. They just keep going that route, be it this or the Epstein files. It just continues.”

He said calling it gaslighting or strategy on the administration’s part gives them too much credit.

“I just think they are inherent liars,” he said. “And so they lie.

 Frigid cold can't tamp down protesters' anger over latest shooting by immigration agents © 2026 by Kelly Fenton is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0