Minneapolis live updates: DOJ launches investigation into Pretti killing, Deputy AG Blanche says

Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama released a statement Sunday on the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, saying it should be a "wake-up call to every American" that the nation's core values are "increasingly under assault."

"Federal law enforcement and immigration agents have a tough job. But Americans expect them to carry out their duties in a lawful, accountable way, and work with, rather than against, state and local officials to ensure public safety," the Obamas said. "That's not what we're seeing in Minnesota. In fact, we're seeing the opposite."

The former first couple said that people across the country have "been rightly outraged by the spectacle of masked ICE recruits and other federal agents acting with impunity and engaging in tactics that seem designed to intimidate, harass, provoke and endanger residents of a major American City."

"These unprecedented tactics -- which even the former top lawyer of the Department of Homeland Security in the first Trump administration has characterized as embarrassing, lawless and cruel -- have now resulted in the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens," the Obamas said.

The Obamas accused the Trump administration of "escalating" the tension in Minneapolis by offering the public explanations of the shootings of Pretti and Renee Good "that aren't informed by any serious investigation -- and that appear to be directly contradicted by video evidence."

They went on to say, "This has to stop. I would hope that after the most recent tragedy, administration officials will reconsider their approach, and start finding ways to work constructively with Governor Walz and Mayor Frey as well as state and local police to avert more chaos and achieve legitimate law enforcement goals."

One day before the second U.S. citizen in less than a month was fatally shot by a federal agent deployed to Minneapolis, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani sharply criticized the ongoing federal immigration enforcement operation as "horrific."

"It is horrific, what we have seen there, and I think that there are too many Americans who are being asked to not believe their own eyes, not believe their own ears, not believe their own realities," Mamdani told ABC News' "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl in an interview that aired Sunday.

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Republican Sen. Thom Tillis is demanding a "thorough and impartial investigation" of Saturday's fatal shooting of a nurse in Minneapolis by a federal agent.

In a social media post, Tillis of North Carolina, said an impartial investigation of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, 37, is "the basic standard that law enforcement and the American people expect following any officer-involved shooting."

"For this specific incident, that requires cooperation and transparency between federal, state, and local law enforcement," Tillis said. "Any administration official who rushes to judgment and tries to shut down an investigation before it begins are doing an incredible disservice to the nation and to President Trump's legacy."

-ABC News' Chris Donovan

A witness to Saturday's fatal shooting by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer in Minneapolis of 37-year-old Alex Pretti said in a court declaration that Pretti was attempting to help a woman who was pushed to the ground by federal agents before he was shot.

The witness -- whose name was redacted in court documents filed by the ACLU as part of an emergency appeal to halt federal agents' conduct in Minneapolis -- said a CBP agent pepper-sprayed three observers, including Pretti, before the woman was shoved to the ground.

"The ICE agents just kept spraying," the witness said, according to the court declaration. "More agents came over and grabbed the man who was still trying to help the woman get up."

The witness said that agents pushed Pretti to the ground, adding, "It didn't look like he was trying to resist, just trying to help the woman up," according to the filing.

The Department of Homeland Security claims Pretti approached officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun and when officers attempted to disarm him, he "violently resisted."

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said Pretti was a lawful gun owner with a license to carry a concealed weapon.

"I have read the statement from DHS about what happened and it is wrong," the witness said, according to the declaration. "The man did not approach the agents with a gun. He approached them with a camera. He was just trying to help a woman get up and they took him to the ground."

-ABC News' Luke Barr