Minnesota officials and federal authorities should let investigators complete their work before drawing conclusions about the shooting death of Minneapolis resident Alex Jeffrey Pretti on Saturday, former Hennepin County Sheriff Richard Stanek told Newsmax.
"Gov. [Tim] Walz has been ramping up the rhetoric for a couple of weeks now. He's been spinning it out of control, getting people riled up," Stanek said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America Weekend" on Sunday.
Pretti was killed after an altercation with federal law enforcement officials early Saturday, after which Walz called for peace but said when that happens, "we give it and we get shot in the face on the streets coming out of a donut shop.
"We cannot give them what they want."
Stanek said, however, that Pretti, an armed man, inserted himself into an active police situation and that investigators must determine what happened.
"This guy, Alex Pretti, as tragic as it is, comes to the scene armed with a gun, interjects himself into a law enforcement action, and has a tragic outcome," said Stanek. "It's really no big surprise. It doesn't mean it's right, doesn't mean it's wrong."
Still, he said, "You've got to wait for the investigation to go on, finish up, and the facts to come forward. Simple as that."
Minnesota state Sen. Eric Lucero, a Republican, said federal agencies should continuously evaluate security conditions, but he criticized Walz's recent public statements.
"So it certainly would be prudent to assess and reassess," he said. "That should be always a continuous action with any law enforcement engagement that's occurring."
He said Walz "misses or lacks context" and that his press conferences "have the intention to divide."
"Yesterday would have been a great example for him to use his influence to tone down the rhetoric, to call for people to slow down and to actually wait for facts to come out before he instills judgment," Lucero said.
Lucero also pushed back on describing recent activity as peaceful.
"Now, what he did instead was to use incendiary language of people being shot in the face, continuing to characterize this as peaceful protests. It's anything but. It really is anything but," Lucero said.
Lucero said people should not place themselves in dangerous situations around active law enforcement operations.
"I think, well, that's what we're seeing. We're seeing his rhetoric is causing people to step into situations where they should not be putting themselves in danger," Lucero said.
"And nobody, nobody can call themselves peaceful when they're actively fighting, struggling, or attacking law enforcement," said Lucero. "It's a very dangerous situation. But it is a response to what Gov. Walz's rhetoric is doing."
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