Yesterday (Jan. 24), 37-year-old Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti was fatally shot by United States Border Patrol amid ongoing anti-ICE protests in the area. It was the third ICE-related shooting in the city this month, and since then, numerous rockers have reacted to the incident in relation to the overarching political climate regarding ICE.
What Happened to Alex Pretti + What Have Rockers Said?
There’s a lot to know about yesterday’s protests and the killing of Alex Pretti. But, suffice it to say here that – as NBC reported yesterday – Pretti was an “ICU nurse” who “served at a Veterans Affairs facility” and who was “shot just before 9 a.m. after a heated confrontation between agents and protesters who opposed the government’s immigration enforcement tactics, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said at a news conference.”
Understandably, the incident – which follows the Jan. 7 fatal shooting of Renée Good and the Jan. 14 non-fatal shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, both also in Minneapolis – has gotten the attention of numerous rock and metal artists over the past day.
For instance, God Forbid/Snot/ex-Bad Wolves guitarist Doc Coyle has posted over a dozen tweets in response to the Pretti shooting (and the Trump administration) since yesterday…