EVERETT — Protesters gathered at the Snohomish County Campus in Everett on Tuesday to hold a vigil as a show of solidarity with the city of Minneapolis as the Midwest city faces a dramatic uptick in immigration enforcement.
The vigil was held after the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two people shot by federal agents in Minneapolis this month amid the rapid rise in immigration enforcement in the city. Both were U.S. citizens with no criminal record.
The shootings sparked nationwide protests and drew condemnation from lawmakers in Congress. As of Tuesday, 111 Democratic representatives in the House had sponsored a resolution to impeach the head of the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem. A number of Everett residents had also held a vigil on Sunday for the people killed by federal agents, according to social media posts.
Tuesday’s vigil, organized by progressive advocacy group Snohomish County Indivisible, saw over 100 people gather at the campus. Attendees laid lights and flowers at the foot of the Snohomish County Veteran’s Memorial. Pretti was a nurse for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Minneapolis.
“Tonight isn’t only about mourning, it’s about remembering who these people were and refusing to look away from what’s happening,” said Anita Dietrich, the founder of Snohomish County Indivisible.
On Jan. 7, a federal officer shot and killed Good after the Department of Homeland Security said Good committed an “act of domestic terrorism” and “weaponized her vehicle against law enforcement.” A New York Times analysis of footage from the shooting found that Good was turning her car away from the agent in an apparent attempt to leave the scene, and did not run over the agent.
On Jan. 24, federal agents shot and killed Pretti. The Department of Homeland Security wrote after the shooting that a federal agent had fired “defensive shots” and that “this looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement,” the agency wrote. Bystander video from the scene, however, showed that Pretti never drew his gun during the encounter. He wore a gun on his hip, and had a permit to carry it, but agents had already disarmed him and pinned him down before they began to shoot him, videos appeared to show.
The Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton of Trinity Episcopal Church in Everett called on attendees at the vigil to stand with immigrants and the most vulnerable people in society.
“We are in the universe, made of the universe, called to be with one another to not participate in a system of violence,” Taber-Hamilton said. “And whatever we believe, we believe together as a community that our diversity is good, that very diversity is the crown of our community.”
Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.
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