Residents gathered Jan. 24 at the intersection of Central and Lowry to mourn Alex Pretti, a protester fatally shot that morning. He was the second Minneapolis resident killed by federal agents in January. (Stephen Faerber)
On Jan. 24, after Alex Jeffrey Pretti was killed by federal agents working on behalf of Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) in South Minneapolis, residents organized vigils across parks and on street corners, each taking place hours after the altercation.
Signs showing locations for community vigils included sixteen outdoor locations, such as Cavell Park; the intersection of Central and Lowry Avenues.; Logan Park; and Waite Park. They also mentioned Grace Lutheran Church and Northeast United Methodist Church as spaces where community members could congregate indoors.
Nick, an individual present at the vigil on Central & Lowry who asked to be identified without his last name, was holding a sign reading “Alex is all of us.”
“I’m here, again, breaking out my warmest winter gear. I shouldn’t have put it away after yesterday,” the eight-year Minneapolis resident said. “Now I’ve got to be out here doing this. This is not what I’m trying to do on my Saturday night, but I’d rather be doing nothing but this. Our community is under attack. I feel everyone in this community has a target on their back.
Bundled against subzero temps, a resident held a sign referencing the deadly encounter and commented that their “community is under attack.” (Stephan Faerber)
“I didn’t want this to be ground zero for whatever the hell this is, but — we didn’t ask for it, but we’ll step up.”
Olivia Barthel, standing on the opposite corner, put it simply: “They’re terrorizing any member of our community regardless of their citizenship or status. It feels like we have an obligation. The whole world is looking at us right now, and if it means we just have to step out on the corner and hold a fake candle to say something, that’s what we have to do.
“We woke up this morning and saw a man executed on the street, and here we are. The saying goes: the horrors persist, but so do we.”
Many people at Lowry and Central hoisted signs, eliciting honks from drivers as they passed through the intersection. Several blocks away, at the base of Deming Heights Park, roughly 40 people gathered for a different style of remembrance.
Spare candles at the base of Deming Heights Park, where residents gathered for a night of song and remembrance. (Michael McKinney)
The scene at the park was relatively quiet. Attendees stood in two neat rows, leaving space for any would-be bikers, as someone led the group in song and Scott Tooker handed out extra candles.
“ICE is occupying our city. Someone was abducted over there just this morning,” Tooker said, referring to an altercation at 31st and Taylor St. NE. “I got an alert that ICE had (arrived), so I went out the door, started filming them and (blowing) the whistle,” he said, referring to the whistles now commonly worn by people on the lookout for ICE.
“More and more showed up. They eventually dispersed, but they took the person that was driving the car — they crashed into them. Their car looks totaled to me. It’s absurd.”
At the top of Deming Heights Park, a group of neighbors gathered for the same purpose, standing next to signs reading “Be good” and “Love thy neighbor.”
“I am moving my feet in an act of prayer,” said Ginny Janelle, a Waite Park resident, while a half-dozen other attendees discussed mutual aid and group-chat security strategies.
“I am walking to a place where neighbors are going to gather, and we are literally carrying light. We are honoring the life of Alex, and also (Renee) Nicole (Good, who was fatally shot by ICE agents on January 7), and many other people whose names I don’t have on the tip of my tongue.
“As I walk away from here, I feel a kind of strengthening and resolve that comes from gathering with each other.”
On the evening of Jan. 24, individuals braved the cold across Minneapolis to protest ICE activity in the city. Here, protesters at the intersection of Central and Lowry. (Stephan Faerber)