Charlotte federal defender asks agents to de-escalate after Minneapolis deaths

Julia Coin, The Charlotte Observer on Jan 26, 2026

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Western North Carolina’s top federal defender has decried “threats to the rule of law” following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by immigration officials in Minnesota.

“What we are witnessing on the streets of Minneapolis, and in other cities across the country, shocks the conscience,” John Baker, the federal public defender for the Western District of North Carolina, said in a Monday statement following Pretti’s death on Saturday in Minneapolis.

Before moving to Charlotte (where federal Border Patrol agents conducted operations in November), Baker worked as the chief defense counsel of the Marine Corps and represented Guantanamo Bay detainees — including those charged in the 9/11 attacks.

Resharing a statement released on behalf of all federal defenders across the country, Baker called for “all federal immigration officials to immediately de-escalate tensions, fully cooperate with independent and transparent investigations, and recommit to the rule of law.”

Pretti was the second citizen killed by federal agents who were carrying out the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement in Minnesota this month.

Renee Good, also 37, died earlier this month when an agent shot her as she drove an SUV away from officers asking her to get out of the car. The agent who shot her, Jonathan Ross, was in fear for his life, the Department of Homeland Security said.

The Trump administration has said it will not investigate Good’s death, and it has blocked any local investigations into Pretti’s killing. Their deaths were just two of the at least 12 times immigration agents have shot at people since September, NBC News reported.

In Pretti’s and Good’s cases, videos contradict the DHS narrative. The same can be said for cases that unfolded in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina when federal immigration agents came to Charlotte in November.

Defense attorneys working in Baker’s office questioned officials’ testimony while representing citizens charged with assaulting officers in Charlotte’s federal court. In three cases, charges were dropped or reduced.

DHS also published inaccurate information about the people its agents were arresting in Charlotte, at one point falsely asserting that a Honduran man charged with murder was released.

In a statement, U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson said Monday that while his office does not expect an incident like Pretti’s death to occur here, he takes “every incident involving use of force by law enforcement very seriously and will always conduct a full and fair investigation in such cases.”

“We have a good and long-standing relationship with CMPD,” his spokesperson said, “and do not expect that to change.”

The statement shared by Baker, who has led the federal public defenders’ office in North Carolina’s western district for more than three years, said: “We stand in solidarity with those who are lawfully asserting their Fourth Amendment constitutional rights to be free from unlawful seizures and racial profiling, and their First Amendment rights to free speech and peaceful assembly.”

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