Vice President JD Vance has refused to apologize for amplifying White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller's initial claim that Alex Pretti, the ICU nurse fatally shot by federal agents, was an "assassin" prior to his death.

"For what?" Vance responded when asked by the Daily Mail Tuesday (February 3) if he would take his description of Pretti back.

“If something is determined, that the guy who shot Alex Pretti did something bad, then a lot of consequences are going to flow from that,” he added. “We’ll let that happen. I don’t think it’s smart to prejudge the investigation.”

Miller said President Donald Trump's administration was "evaluating" why Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents "may not have been following" protocol last week after initially labeled Pretti as a "would-be assassin" who "tried to murder federal law enforcement" and called him as a "domestic terrorist" via FOX News. Pretti's death was officially ruled as a homicide by the Heneepin County Medical Examiner, ABC News reported on Monday (February 2).

Pretti, 37, had "multiple gunshot wounds" listed as his cause of death, as well as "shot by law enforcement officer(s)" before being pronounced dead in the emergency room at Hennepin Healthcare last month. The two federal agents who shot the ICU nurse during the incident were identified in government public records obtained by the independent nonprofit newsroom ProPublica.org.

Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa, 43, and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez, were both assigned to Operation Metro Surge when they opened fire on Pretti in Minneapolis on January 24. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection hadn't publicly released the two men's names nor disclosed many facts about the fatal incident at the time of the publication.

Videos shared online appear to show Pretti being taken down by multiple federal agents and disarmed before an officer fired multiple shots during an anti-ICE demonstration in Minneapolis. The incident took place 17 days after Renée Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer during a protest in the same city.

White House border czar Tom Homan announced that he will "draw down" the number of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minnesota last Thursday (January 29) following two fatal shootings and ensuing local and nationwide protests. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison demanded that a "full, impartial, and transparent investigation" be held in connection with the shooting while a federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from "destroying or altering" evidence linked to the incident, Axois reports.

KNN

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