Dean Cain says top Minnesota Democrats, and not ICE, are primarily to blame in the Saturday shooting death at a Minneapolis protest of Alex Pretti, who the actor said ‘certainly wasn’t there just being a peaceful protester.’
The 59-year-old actor spoke Monday with TMZ Live two days after the fatal shooting of Pretti by a U.S. Border Patrol officer during an immigration enforcement operation.
Cain claimed in the interview that Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse at a Minnesota VA hospital, ‘certainly wasn’t just being a peaceful protester’.
Asked if agents showed appropriate force in the exchange, the former TV star said ‘that could be determined later by investigation for sure.’
Cain, who played Superman on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman from 1993-1997, went on: ‘I don’t know all of the events leading up to this moment, I do know that that law enforcement – certainly ICE and Border Patrol – have been under a tremendous amount of pressure and attacks.
‘And they’re getting tremendous abuse from what I completely believe is a 100 percent organized opposition very, very – actually pretty sophisticated. I think we’re gonna uncover that as it goes on.’
Actor Dean Cain, 59, told TMZ Live MOnday that top Minnesota Democrats, and not ICE, are to blame in the killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday. Pictured in 2025 in New Orleans
Cain claimed that Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse at a VA hospital, ‘certainly wasn’t there just being a peaceful protester’
The conservative actor suggested authorities ‘were just trying to take [Pretti] down at that point in time.’
Cain added of Pretti: ‘He certainly wasn’t there just being a peaceful protester and it was a very bad idea to engage physically with federal law enforcement while armed.’
‘He’s standing between law enforcement officers and that woman, that’s a mistake in its own own right and doing it while armed is a bad, bad idea.’
Cain, who has also been seen on shows such as Las Vegas, Clubhouse and Beverly Hills, 90210, questioned Pretti’s conduct in the moments leading to the fatal shooting.
‘How many times had he had communication with law enforcement officers before that moment – why was he standing in the street?’ Cain said. ‘There’s a lot of questions that need to be answered.
‘He may have become a target just standing in front of ICE vehicles – I don’t know, but there’s an awful lot of that.’
Cain said that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey were inflaming the situation in Minnesota with politically-charged rhetoric, coming in the wake of the death of Renee Nicole Good earlier this month.
Cain said that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey were inflaming the situation in Minnesota with politically-charged rhetoric
Cain said ‘that rhetoric is emboldening people – and they’re telling him to fight them in the streets and do these things – that is the root cause of the problem.’ Pictured 2022
Flowers are left at a makeshift memorial in the area where Alex Pretti was shot dead a day earlier by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis
‘The truth of this really falls on the shoulders of Governor Walz, Mayor Frey and all the city and state officials who are not cooperating with ICE and are calling them Gestapo and modern day Nazis.
‘That rhetoric is emboldening people – and they’re telling him to fight them in the streets and do these things – that is the root cause of the problem.’
In Minneapolis on Sunday, federal and state officials were clashing over the incident, with each saying the other side was at fault.
Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino said Sunday that Pretti had placed himself in harm’s way with his conduct in the incident.
‘When someone makes the choice to come into an active law enforcement scene, interfere, obstruct, delay or assault law enforcement officer and – and they bring a weapon to do that – that is a choice that that individual made,’ Bovino said, according to the AP.
Walz asked at a news conference, ‘Which side do you want to be on? The side of an all-powerful federal government that could kill, injure, menace and kidnap its citizens off the streets, or on the side of a nurse at the VA hospital who died bearing witness to such government.’
Walz was one of a number of notable Democrats who spoke out about the incident, a group including his former running mate, ex-Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris hailed Pretti via social media as a person who ‘was dedicated to serving his community and our country.’
Cain played Superman on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman from 1993-1997
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman featured Cain opposite Teri Hatcher
Harris continued, ‘As so many have now seen on video, his final act before he was killed by federal agents was doing everything in his power to protect his community.
‘Alex and tens of thousands of Minnesotans have boldly defended their neighbors against the murderous occupation of an American city by the federal government.’
The 2024 Democratic presidential candidate wrapped up in saying she was ‘enraged and heartbroken for Alex, his family, Minneapolis, and America.’
Another former presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, called for ‘all federal agents — ICE and Border Patrol’ to be ‘withdrawn immediately from Minneapolis and other cities.’
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said, ‘ICE terrorizes our cities. ICE puts us all in danger. Abolish ICE.’
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