How many shootings by ICE or Border Patrol resulted in civilian deaths during 2024–2026, and what prosecutions followed?
Executive summary
Reporting through late January 2026 shows a cluster of shootings by U.S. immigration agents that have produced multiple civilian deaths: sources counted at least four fatal shootings by immigration officers as of Jan. 9, 2026, and the Jan. 24, 2026, Border Patrol killing of Alex Pretti brought the documented total higher, to at least five deaths reported in the press [1] [2] [3]. Public reporting also shows dozens of separate officer-involved shootings and wounds, while concrete public evidence of criminal prosecutions tied to those shootings remained limited or absent in the cited coverage [4] [5].
1. How many fatal shootings are on the public record in 2024–early 2026?
Local and national outlets compiling incidents say dozens of shootings by ICE and Border Patrol were recorded in the period covering the Trump administration’s second term into early 2026, with media tallies placing the number of officer-involved shooting incidents in the teens and at least four deaths attributable to those shootings by Jan. 9, 2026 [1]; subsequent reporting documents the Jan. 24, 2026, Minneapolis Border Patrol killing of Alex Pretti, which raised the count of reported civilian deaths from immigration-agent shootings to at least five in the assembled coverage [2] [3]. Independent trackers such as The Trace and The Wall Street Journal highlighted “more than a dozen” shootings and flagged patterns like agents firing at or into moving vehicles, which the Journal said had produced at least two deaths since July 2025 in its review [4] [6].
2. Who were some of the victims named in the coverage, and where did incidents occur?
Reporting names several victims: Renee Nicole Good, shot and killed in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, 2026, is explicitly cited in multiple outlets as part of the cluster of deadly encounters [4] [1]; other fatal shootings referenced in reporting occurred in a Chicago suburb in September 2025 and in Rio Grande City, Texas, in December 2025, according to investigative accounts collected by The Marshall Project and others [4]. The Jan. 24, 2026, killing of Alex Jeffrey Pretti — described as a 37-year-old Minneapolis ICU nurse by some outlets — became the most recent and most publicly contested incident cited in national coverage [2] [3].
3. What prosecutions or criminal charges followed these shootings?
The reporting surveyed does not document any completed federal criminal prosecutions of ICE or Border Patrol agents tied to these specific deadly shootings through late January 2026; news organizations instead described internal reviews, public protests, and legal scrutiny without naming formal indictments [5] [7]. Reuters and BBC coverage examined the legal framework and the practical obstacles to prosecuting federal officers for use of force, noting investigations and “reviews” announced by administration and DHS officials but not reporting active criminal trials or convictions arising from the cluster of incidents [5] [8]. Local advocates and some politicians were publicly calling for prosecutions and evidence-gathering for possible future cases, but those calls had not yet translated into reported charges in the cited stories [7] [9].
4. How are outlets and authorities framing accountability and the political fallout?
Coverage frames the shootings as both a law‑enforcement and a political crisis: outlets report public outrage, protests, and partisan conflict over DHS funding after the Minneapolis deaths, and national commentators flagged internal DHS policy questions about deadly force that predate the current spike in shootings [10] [11]. Some reporting highlights contradictions between official accounts and witness videos, and critics have seized on prosecutorial statements that appeared to justify killings of armed civilians, underscoring a fraught landscape for proving criminal culpability even as episodes spur calls for accountability [9] [12].
5. What remains uncertain in the public record?
Available reporting documents incident counts, named victims, and official statements, but it does not provide a definitive, single authoritative tally of all civilian deaths caused by ICE or Border Patrol shootings across 2024–2026, nor does it show completed criminal prosecutions tied to those shootings as of the dates of these stories; confirmation of additional charges or later prosecutions would require newer reporting beyond the cited sources [1] [5].