WASHINGTON: US immigration agents may have breached "protocol" in Minneapolis before shooting dead a nurse during protests, President Donald Trump's senior aide Stephen Miller said Tuesday -- days after falsely branding the victim an assassin.
The admission comes as Trump says he wants to de-escalate the situation in Minneapolis following the killing of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti during a protest against an immigration crackdown on Saturday.
Deputy Chief of Staff Miller, a powerful figure who leads Trump's hardline immigration policy, said in a statement to AFP that the White House was now looking into the possible breach.
He said the White House had provided "clear guidance" that extra personnel were sent to Minnesota to "create a physical barrier between the arrest teams and the disruptors."
"We are evaluating why the CBP (Customs and Border Protection) team may not have been following that protocol," Miller said.
Miller also appeared to blame both the border agency and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for his comments on Saturday, which have since attracted criticism.
Shortly after the killing, Miller called Pretti a "would-be assassin" and accused him of wanting to murder federal agents.
But Miller said his comments were based on an initial statement by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who falsely said Pretti was brandishing a weapon when he approached federal agents.
Video evidence later showed that the victim was not holding a gun at the time. Pretti had a sidearm on him, but agents had already removed it before he was shot multiple times at point-blank range.
"The initial statement from DHS was based on reports from CBP on the ground," Miller said in his statement.
The developments came a day after President Donald Trump ordered border czar Tom Homan to take over his administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota in the wake of Pretti's death, which was the second fatal shooting this month of a person at the hands of immigration law enforcement.
By sending Homan to Minnesota, “we’re going to de-escalate a little bit,” Trump said during an interview on Fox News’ “Will Cain Show.” That’s significant since White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, when questioned repeatedly Monday about Homan’s being dispatched to Minnesota, refused to say that doing so was an effort to calm the situation.
The president added of Homan, “Tom, as tough as he is, gets along” with governors and mayors, even in Democratic areas.
As he left the White House on Tuesday, the president was asked whether Pretti’s killing on Saturday was justified. He responded by saying that a “big investigation” was underway. In the hours after Pretti’s death, some administration officials sought to blame the shooting on the 37-year-old intensive care nurse.