On the morning of Jan. 24, Matt Jones woke up to a message in the rapid response observers’ group chat, where he and others in Minneapolis had been trading information about ICE. According to the text, there were gunshots reported at 26th and Nicollet Ave. Minutes later, Jones was there. A man who would soon be identified as 37-year-old Alex Pretti had just been shot and killed by masked federal agents, and a crowd of angry and terrified citizens was growing. Jones joined chants that have become common in the streets of South Minneapolis: “Fuck ICE,” “ICE out,” and pointedly on this occasion, “murderers.”
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As Jones was getting ready to leave the scene — rumors had started to spread about the potential for mass arrests — agents began to push Jones and a group of protesters back, seemingly in an attempt to clear a path for vehicles to come through an alley. As he was pushed back, Jones says, he stumbled over some snow. “I kind of stepped forward to regain my balance, and they took that as aggression, I guess. One of them was like, ‘Who just pushed me? We push you, you don’t fuckin’ push us.’ He just grabbed me and threw me down,” Jones says…