- German Chancellor Merz expressed concern over the violence in the United States.
- Another American citizen has been fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis.
- Germany has warned its citizens against traveling to areas of violence in the US.
- The incidents in Minneapolis sparked widespread protests against the intervention of federal authorities.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz on Monday expressed concern about the violence in the United States. He was primarily reacting to Saturday’s incident in the city of Minneapolis, in which American federal authorities fatally shot the second person – American citizen Alex Pretti († 37). TASR took over the report from the agencies DPA and AFP.
Pretti, who worked at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital, was fatally shot by Border Patrol agents on Saturday. Federal authorities say Pretti threatened the agents with a gun. However, in the published images, it can be seen that he had a mobile phone in his hand, which he used to film the agents. Even before that, he tried to help a woman who was thrown to the ground by the agents.
“I have to say that I find this level of violence in the United States disturbing, to say the least,” announced Merz at a press conference in Hamburg. “I assume that the American authorities will now thoroughly investigate whether it was necessary to shoot in this case, whether there really was a threat to the members who intervened there,” added the chancellor.
On Monday, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned citizens traveling to the United States, to be cautious due to “violent clashes with immigration and security authorities” in Minneapolis, but also in other American cities.
The tension in Minneapolis was already raised by the shooting in early January, in which the agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) fatally wounded the American Renée Good. who allegedly tried to hit one of them with a car. That claim is disputed by videos from the scene, which show her vehicle evading the agent.
President Donald Trump’s administration has deployed thousands of federal employees to the Minneapolis metropolitan area as part of an immigration crackdown. which, however, caused widespread public protests as a result of the aforementioned incidents.
