Multiple people have been arrested as protests erupted after the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old US citizen by a federal agent in Minneapolis.

Federal agents were seen firing tear gas and pepper balls just hours after Alex Jeffrey Pretti was killed following an altercation on Saturday involving multiple officers.

Pretti was wrestled to the ground before one federal agent fired multiple shots into his chest. The killing was captured on camera.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told the Daily Mail that the suspect was armed with two magazines and the gun was later recovered by federal authorities.

In a press conference Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino said the officer who shot the man had been serving with the Border Patrol for the past eight years. 

Protests have picked up in Minneapolis in recent weeks as ICE continues to occupy the city following the death of Renee Good, who was shot and killed by an agent on January 7 and the shooting of another man last week.

The city’s police department is also on scene and working to keep more than 100 observers and protesters separated from the federal agents, reported the Star Tribune. 

Several witnesses were transported to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building as ICE agents tried to order local police to leave the scene, but Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara refused.

O’Hara called the display an ‘unlawful assembly’ and urged people to leave the area.

‘We recognize that there is a lot of anger and a lot of questions around what has happened, but we need people to remain peaceful,’ he said at a press conference Saturday. 

A command post has been set up by local law enforcement at the scene near Glam Doll Donuts at 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue.

It is unclear how many protesters have been detained at the scene. 

As protests intensified, two ‘rioters’ allegedly bit off a law enforcement officer’s finger.

Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the US Department of Homeland Security, said an HSI officer will be without a finger after ‘rioters’ bit it off.

On Saturday afternoon, McLaughlin wrote on X: ‘In Minneapolis, these rioters attacked our law enforcement officer and one of them bit off our HSI officer’s finger. He will lose his finger.’

In an attached photo, an officer wearing an HSI uniform held out his hand, showing a chunk of his right ring finger completely missing with only blood on it.

Another graphic photo appeared to show the severed piece – including the nail – placed carefully in a clear medical container.

Of the four photos McLaughlin posted, two depicted the alleged unidentified ‘rioters’ she claimed were the culprits. 

Pretti’s friends spoke to Daily Mail and paid tribute to the ‘good, kind’ friend who they say was ‘executed’ by the Border Patrol agent.

The University of Minnesota alumnus most recently listed himself as a ‘junior scientist’ on LinkedIn.

He worked as a nurse for the Veterans Health Administration at the Minneapolis VA hospital and earned a reported $90,783 in 2023, according to public records.

‘I worked with him daily for years at the VA hospital,’ Ruth Anway, a Minneapolis‑based nurse said.

‘He was an ICU nurse. He worked with veterans. He was a really good guy. He definitely did not deserve to get killed.’

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told the Daily Mail that agents were in the area attempting to apprehend, ‘an illegal alien wanted for violent assault’ when they were approached by Pretti.

Officials claimed officers attempted to disarm Pretti but that he ‘violently resisted’ before a Border Patrol agent fired the fatal shot.