By Adeola Adeosun and Peter AitkenShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberPresident Donald Trump in an interview published by the Wall Street Journal on Sunday evening took issue with Alex Pretti carrying a gun at a protest, during which the 37-year-old ICU nurse was shot and killed by a federal agent.
The president spoke with the Journal by phone for five minutes, touching on the major events of the weekend and the aftermath, in which his administration has faced significant criticism for how officials responded to the shooting.
“I don’t like any shooting. I don’t like it,” Trump said. “But I don’t like it when somebody goes into a protest and he’s got a very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines loaded up with bullets also. That doesn’t play good either.”
Pretti worked at the Minneapolis VA, and was a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry, with records reflecting no serious criminal history, according to authorities and public records cited by local media.
Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a Republican, earlier on Sunday criticized Trump-appointed federal prosecutor Bill Essayli for warning people about "approaching law enforcement with a gun."
In a post on X, Massie wrote: "Carrying a firearm is not a death sentence, it’s a Constitutionally protected God-given right, and if you don’t understand this you have no business in law enforcement or government.”
This is a breaking news story. Updates will follow.
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