By:Molly Gibbs
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley on Tuesday called the shooting of an ICU nurse in Minneapolis “very troubling” and added that he welcomes investigations and hearings on the actions of Department of Homeland Security agents in the incident.
Video of the incident shows DHS agents pinning 37-year-old Alex Pretti to the ground and shooting him multiple times after disarming him. There is no video evidence that Pretti ever brandished his weapon, which he was licensed to carry.
In the uproar immediately following the incident, Missouri’s other senator, Eric Schmitt, defended DHS, accusing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz of engaging in a “war on law enforcement.” Schmitt’s comments came before President Donald Trump’s Monday call with Walz, and his announcement that “we’re going to de-escalate a little bit.”
Schmitt was traveling back to Washington Tuesday and was unavailable for comment.
Hawley said he agreed with Trump that it is time to “turn the temperature down” in Minnesota.
When asked about the legality of the shooting, Hawley drew on his experience as Missouri’s attorney general, saying that he oversaw many police raids and that they are always dangerous.
“I am a firm believer in qualified immunity for law enforcement,” Hawley said. “But qualified immunity isn’t total immunity. The test there is: what would a reasonable person have done in those circumstances.”
Hawley said he wouldn’t recommend people carry firearms into an area where law enforcement is known to be conducting an operation, but added that Pretti’s decision to do so did not violate any law. In Missouri, the senator noted, a person would not even need a concealed carry permit, which Pretti had.
Pretti’s death, the second of two fatal shootings by DHS personnel during the agency’s surge in Minnesota, is creating the potential for a government shutdown at the end of the week.
The Senate faces a Friday deadline to approve a package of six funding bills for federal agencies, but Democrats, and some Republicans, say they want to reconsider the DHS funding package in light of what they consider the agency’s overreach in Minnesota.
Hawley said he wants to fund the Department of Homeland Security and keep the government open. Still, he said he will defer to Majority Leader U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., when it comes to delaying or amending funding for DHS.
Fletcher Mantooth contributed to this reporting.
This story originally appeared in the Columbia Missourian. It can be republished in print or online.