Steven Garcia, as told to Gaby Del Valle:
I was in the middle of a frozen lake when I got the notification from the Minnesota Star Tribune that there had been a shooting. I was on assignment at a pond hockey event, and someone who was supposed to play later that evening said he probably wouldn’t be able to make it — they knew there would be protests and demonstrations happening.
I arrived a little over three hours later. Federal officers had already cleared the scene — the FBI had been there investigating — so the only law enforcement present were state and local officials: the Minneapolis Police Department, their SWAT team, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, and the Minnesota State Patrol.
There were protesters at multiple intersections. People had blocked off the streets with trash cans and dumpsters, and there were mattresses on the ground. Protesters were heckling officers, but there were no physical altercations. Eventually law enforcement retreated by a block and started throwing tear gas. They drove their trucks over the mattresses as they left.
When those tear gas canisters go off, they pop and bang, kind of like a firework. Dozens of canisters were going off. Even initially, there were four, five, six canisters at a time that they were throwing. I had to duck in an alley for a little bit because it got through my mask. It’s not a fun experience, even in very small amounts. You have to keep your eyes closed. It burns your eyes, it burns your mouth. For some people, it causes nausea and burning on the skin. Another local reporter told me his neck was burning and he had to use a decon wipe.
I think because of George Floyd in 2020, people knew how to respond. Gregory Bovino, the head of the US Border Patrol who has been here the whole time, has said community members in Minneapolis are really prepared. A lot of people I’ve talked to have said, “I had my respirator ready from 2020,” and they just restocked on safety supplies, decon wipes, and first aid kits. Even if they weren’t immediately prepared, they could rapidly respond to these kinds of events. At all the events I’ve been to, people will set a table to hand out food and water and hand warmers. It was especially cold today — it wasn’t supposed to get above 0 degrees.
After the officers cleared the scene, everyone convened at the intersection of 26th and Nicolette, just a couple hundred feet from where Alex Pretti was shot. Some community members started a makeshift vigil for him at the location where he was killed. People were spelling his name out with pinecones and starting to leave flowers.
