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Local law enforcement agencies that refuse to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are putting public safety at risk, former ICE agent Tim Miller warned Sunday, calling the practice a “formula for disaster” in the wake of a second civilian death involving federal agents in Minneapolis.
“The scary part is that the police aren’t with them,” Miller told “Sunday Night in America” host Trey Gowdy.
“Without the police involved locally, it’s a formula for disaster. And unfortunately, that’s what we’re seeing play out.”
Miller pointed to the Supreme Court decision Graham v. Connor, which established that law enforcement actions must be judged through the lens of “objective reasonableness,” arguing that the facts known to the agent who used deadly force on Veterans Affairs ICU nurse Alex Pretti on Saturday will be “carefully analyzed.”
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A federal law enforcement agent stands outside a home during a raid in south Minneapolis on Jan. 13. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“It starts with the law. Were laws broken in this case? Absolutely. Then the facts. What are the facts? And to your point, that’s what’s being carefully analyzed. And then the reasonable force. Well, we know when a gun’s in play, deadly force is an option. It has to be,” he argued.
Former Minnesota Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who also appeared during Sunday’s show, called on others to withhold judgment until “all the evidence” comes to light.
“We have learned in very painful ways, including with the Renee Good shooting, [that] the people who spout off their mouths early without full information are in a very precarious position and do a great disservice to the ultimate cause of justice,” he said, raising questions surrounding the use of deadly force in the situation.
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This undated photo provided by Michael Pretti shows Alex J. Pretti, who was shot by a federal officer in Minneapolis on Jan. 24. (Michael Pretti via AP)
“What I saw in this video is, let’s wait, but also it does appear in one video that a federal agent had a gun, we presume, although we don’t know that it was Pretti’s gun and was potentially disarmed before those shots were fired. And then that leaves a lot of important questions around why Pretti was fired upon by other officers, maybe, as you mentioned, up to 10 times.
“What we know now raises a lot of questions and a lot of concerns, but we need to let the evidence come forward more fully,” he said.
Narratives have clashed in the wake of Saturday’s shooting, with members of President Donald Trump‘s administration and allies of federal law enforcement defending the agent’s actions as self-defense.
Others, including Pretti’s parents, rebuked law enforcement’s version of events as “sickening lies.”
“Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital,” the couple, Michael and Susan Pretti, wrote.
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“The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed,” they continued.
Pretti’s death marks the second involving a federal agent in Minneapolis this month.
Fox News’ Alexandra Koch and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.