From Frigid Calm to Outraged Sorrow: A Day on Minneapolis' Eat Street After Fatal Shooting
Saturday morning dawned frigid and quiet on Minneapolis' "Eat Street," a vibrant stretch south of downtown renowned for its eclectic mix of small coffee shops and restaurants, from New American cuisine to authentic Vietnamese fare. The scene was one of typical weekend stillness, a stark contrast to the turmoil that would soon engulf the neighbourhood.
A Swift and Violent Transformation
Within a mere five hours, the atmosphere shifted dramatically. A protester was dead. Disturbing videos began circulating widely, depicting multiple federal agents on top of a man and the subsequent sound of gunshots. Federal and local officials swiftly entered a now-familiar pattern of angrily trading blame for the incident. Eat Street itself became the epicentre of a series of intense clashes, witnessing federal officers and local police pull back as protesters took control of the area.
The chain of events ignited around 9 a.m. when a federal immigration officer shot and killed a man on the street. This location sits approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometres) from the site of a January 7th fatal shooting of a local woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer—an earlier incident that had already sparked widespread outrage and daily protests across the city.
Explosive Anger in a City on Edge
In just over an hour, that simmering anger exploded once more in a city already stretched taut with tension. Even prior to the current surge in immigration enforcement, networks comprising thousands of local residents had organised to monitor and publicly denounce such actions, while national, state, and local leaders engaged in a relentless cycle of mutual recrimination over the escalating situation.
Two Associated Press journalists arrived at the scene minutes after Saturday's shooting. They observed dozens of protesters converging rapidly and confronting the federal agents, many blowing the whistles activists use to signal the presence of federal officers. Having covered protests for days, including a massive demonstration in downtown Minneapolis on Friday afternoon, the journalists noted the anger and sorrow within Saturday's crowd felt markedly more urgent and intense.
Hours of Conflict and a Sombre Takeover
The crowd, which swelled rapidly into the hundreds, screamed insults and obscenities at the agents, some of whom shouted back mockingly. For several hours, the two groups clashed violently as tear gas billowed in the subzero air. Officers repeatedly pushed back protesters from improvised barricades using flash-bang grenades and pepper balls, only for the demonstrators to regroup and reclaim their ground. Roughly five hours after the initial shooting, following one final large push down the street, the enforcement officers departed in a convoy.
By mid-afternoon, protesters had taken full control of the intersection adjacent to the shooting scene, cordoning it off with discarded yellow police tape. Some stood atop large metal dumpsters that blocked all traffic, banging on them rhythmically, while others delivered impassioned speeches at a growing, impromptu memorial for 37-year-old Alex Pretti, the man killed that morning. People arranged tree branches in a circle to further demarcate the area, while others placed flowers and candles at the memorial site beside a snow bank.
Many carried handwritten signs demanding that ICE leave Minnesota immediately, emblazoned with the same expletive-laden slogans against the agency that have been plastered across the Twin Cities for weeks. The prevailing mood in the crowd was one of widespread anger and profound sadness—echoing the same outpouring of wrath that shook the city for weeks following the killing of George Floyd in 2020, though without the widespread rioting that characterised that period.
Official Response and Community Reaction
Law enforcement was not visibly present in the blocks immediately surrounding the shooting scene, although multiple agencies had mobilised, and the National Guard announced it would assist in providing security for the area.
At an afternoon news conference, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara stated that his officers, alongside members of the Minnesota National Guard in yellow safety vests, were working to keep the area around the shooting safe and to prevent traffic from interfering with "lawful, peaceful demonstrations." No traffic, except for residents, was permitted within a six-by-seven block perimeter around the scene.
Numerous stores, sports venues, and cultural institutions shuttered on Saturday afternoon, citing safety concerns. Some businesses remained open specifically to offer respite to protesters from the dangerous cold, providing water, coffee, snacks, and hand-warmer packets.
As evening fell, a sombre and sorrowful crowd, still numbering in the hundreds, maintained a vigil by the memorial. "It feels like every day something crazier happens," said Caleb Spike, capturing the community's exhaustion and despair. "What comes next? I don't know what the solution is." The day on Eat Street, which began in frozen quiet, ended in a chilling atmosphere of grief and unresolved tension.
