BREAKING NEWS:RADICAL NETWORK MOBILIZED BEFORE MINNEAPOLIS ICE SHOOTING, ANALYSIS SUGGESTS. Click to read more.

An investigation by Fox News Digital has revealed a coordinated network of encrypted chats, real-time alerts and activist tracking databases that appears to have mobilized demonstrators before the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis.

According to the report, activists opposed to federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota were using encrypted messaging platforms like Signal and a dedicated database to monitor and share the movements of ICE and Border Patrol units operating in the city.

That intelligence network — described as a sophisticated web of street alerts and tracking of ICE “abductors” — indicated that agitators were already gathering near the scene minutes before any shots were fired outside a downtown Minneapolis donut shop where the shooting later occurred.

Encrypted messages obtained by Fox News Digital showed anti-ICE “rapid responders” actively broadcasting the location of federal agents in the area of Glam Doll Donuts on Nicollet Avenue.

Users shared short video clips and location updates that drew additional activists to the scene, including targeted calls for “backup” and alerts about vehicles believed to belong to ICE or Border Patrol personnel.

Critics of federal immigration policy argue that this network enabled organized interference with law-enforcement operations, allowing activists to converge quickly on the site of the federal action.

Some of the encrypted entries referenced a centralized database called “MN ICE Plates,” where activists logged license plate numbers and details of government vehicles in the critical hours before and after Pretti’s death.

Supporters of the network, however, frame their actions as a form of real-time community reporting and defense against what they see as intrusive federal enforcement in Minneapolis — part of a broader Operation Metro Surge immigration crackdown launched by the Biden and Trump administrations.

That campaign has already resulted in thousands of arrests and two fatal shootings in the city, including the killing of Pretti and another protester, Renée Good, in early January.

The aftermath of the shooting saw protests erupt not just in Minneapolis but across the country, as sympathetic groups leveraged social media, encrypted chats and rapid-response networks to organize vigils, marches and demonstrations.

Opponents of the federal immigration raids argue that the coordinated activist response highlights deep public distrust of aggressive enforcement tactics and a desire for greater oversight and transparency.

Federal authorities, for their part, maintain that Border Patrol agents were responding to a targeted law-enforcement operation and that the situation rapidly escalated in a manner that prompted the use of force.

Local and state officials have demanded independent investigations and access to evidence, while activists continue to use digital tools to monitor and contest federal actions in Minneapolis.