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Reposted by Connie Cho

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

You have to read this. Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She's afraid to go home, worried she'll be arrested.

1. I am a resident of the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota. I am over 18 years of age. I am a children's entertainer who specializes in face painting.
2. On Saturday, January 24, 2026, at about 8:50 am, I was getting ready to go to work when I heard whistles outside. I knew the whistles meant that ICE agents were in the area, so I decided to check it out on my way to work. I've been involved in observing in my community because it is so important to document what ICE is doing to my neighbors. Connecting to your local community and knowing who your neighbors are is something I profoundly value.
3. I drove to Nicollet Ave. and 26th where I could hear the whistles coming from. I turned south onto Nicollet. There were already several ICE agents there and they'd set up a sort of vehicle convoy on Nicollet and 28th. There were also about 15 observers there, recording and observing ICE.
4. I saw ICE agents surrounding cars and punching car windows. I also saw them stopping vehicles further down Nicollet, so I backed up because I didn't feel safe continuing on.
5. I noticed a man sort of acting to help traffic move more smoothly. He helped me find a place to park. I got out with my whistle and my camera. I went over to him and said something like, "I'm going to film and use my whistle."
6. It seemed like most ICE activity was happening a little farther down the street from us, near 27th. Someone was being thrown to the ground.

7. I started recording. There was an agent by a car across the street. Two observers were a few feet away from the agent, blowing their whistles. One was wearing a backpack.
8. I and the man who was observing and helping direct traffic were standing in the street. There was a phone in the man's hand recording a video.
9. An agent approached and asked us to back up, so I moved slowly back onto the sidewalk.
10. The man stayed in the street, filming as the other observers I mentioned earlier were being forced backward by another ICE agent threatening them with pepper spray. The man went closer to support them as they got threatened, just with his camera out. I didn't see him reach for or hold a gun.
11. Then the ICE agent shoved one of the other observers to the ground. Then he started pepper spraying all three of them directly in the face and all over. The man with the phone put his hands above his head and the agent sprayed him again and pushed him.
12. Then the man tried to help up the woman the ICE agent had shoved to the ground. The ICE agents just kept spraying. More agents came over and grabbed the man who was still trying to help the woman get up. All three of the observers looked to have been badly affected by the pepper spray. I could feel the pepper spray in my eyes.

13. The agents pulled the man on the ground. I didn't see him touch any of them-he wasn't even turned toward them. It didn't look like he was trying to resist, just trying to help the woman up. I didn't see him with a gun. They threw him to the ground. Four or five agents had him on the ground and they just started shooting him. They shot him so many times.
14.1 don't know why they shot him. He was only helping. I was five feet from him and they just shot him.
15. The video I recorded of what happened accurately depicts the events leading up to the agents shooting him and several minutes afterwards. The video is attached as Exhibit 1.
16. I have read the statement from DHS about what happened and it is wrong. The man did not approach the agents with a gun. He approached them with a camera. He was just trying to help a woman get up and they took him to the ground.
17. I feel afraid. Only hours have passed since they shot a man right in front me and I don't feel like I can go home because I heard agents were looking for me. I don't know what the agents will do when they find me. I do know that they're not telling the truth about what happened. I've heard that other witnesses might have been arrested and taken to the Whipple Building.
18. I am disgusted and gutted at how they are treating my neighbors and my state. I keep alternating between crying and feeling determined it is important to remember the value of documenting injustice. We show up for the people who need us to bear

witness, because it can't just be one group of people bearing the brunt of their tyranny. This is a struggle to protect our freedom and democracy, those things are on the line. He lost his life for those values.
I declare under penalty of perjury that everything I have stated in this document is true and correct.

Dated and signed on Jan 24, 2026 in Hennepin County, State of Minnesota.

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Reposted by Connie Cho

Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 24/01/2026

New video shows the man who was killed moments before the shooting. He was peacefully standing in the street observing before ICE agents started pushing him for no reason.

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

Just scrolled through a bunch of videos of ICE executing someone in the street — this one has a slow motion breakdown of how the execution occurs after another ICE agent has already disarmed the man (who is also already pinned down and just being pummeled by multiple agents).

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Reposted by Connie Cho

Ryan Eichten @reichten.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

Timberwolves hold a moment of silence for Renee Nicole Good

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

@wolvesclips.bsky.social really hung in there last night, but for second half of the game I really just spent the whole time thinking, is that a tiny size gavel or a normal size gavel in Shaq’s hand? How does Shaq have a gavel? Why did Shaq have a gavel?

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

That McDaniels mean mug was everything.

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Just a casual Wednesday in America. Preparing for Border Patrol, the Coast Guard, and ICE agents to invade our neighborhoods for literally no reason other than to terrorize and rip families apart while cutting off food and health care for others 🙄

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

Woohoo! 🎉 The EPA grant to study the health impacts of refinery retirements and retrofits in partnership the incredible leading researchers at UCLA, UC Berkeley, and PSE Healthy Energy has been restored thanks to a class action lawsuit! @apen4ej.bsky.social

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

Going to print this on a t-shirt for the next EJ convening @kbvale.bsky.social

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Reposted by Connie Cho

👻 David Weiskopf believes in spooks 👻 @dave.bzky.team · 15/07/2025

Astronaut meme for mid transition

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Reposted by Connie Cho

Cristian Farias @cristianfarias.com · 14/07/2025

The Supreme Court's disdain for Congress, the statutory design of agencies, and the public services they provide to millions truly astounds. Destroying a 50-year-old Cabinet-level department may be the biggest violation of the Take Care Clause in U.S. history—and six justices simply ... don't care.

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Reposted by Connie Cho

Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) @apen4ej.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

The oil industry made this mess. Now, they want permission to continue fleecing California taxpayers and consumers – and, as a bonus, slash regulations, cut corners, and endanger Californians. We can’t let Big Oil shake down California on their way out.

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Reposted by Connie Cho

Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) @apen4ej.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

We must follow the leadership of EJ groups in the Valley directly impacted by dirty drilling, and the many groups that have spent over a decade facing down threats of unchecked drilling expansion – groups like CRPE, CCEJN and CVAQ.

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

I said there’s no way to sugar coat it!

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

So my lawyer brain wants to explode because I could spend like 20 posts explaining this with graphs and citations, but it is 6PM on a Friday and my partner gets home soon, so I give you these two screenshots of a summary of a summary of a summary:

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Reposted by Connie Cho

Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) @apen4ej.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

What’s happening: In the last year, two refineries in CA have announced plans to close – and Big Oil is taking the opportunity to shakedown taxpayers and maximize profits on their way out, making Californians foot the bill for their pollution ❌❌ stoptheoilshakedown.org

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

🧵🪡 A thread on my attempt to thread the needle at a @calenergy.bsky.social meeting in a two-minute high-level public comment and taken out of context on (to be fair) a complex subject. ⬇️

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Reposted by Connie Cho

Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

Who was MN Rep. Melissa Hortman in the MN Legislature? READ about her consequential leadership in this THREAD by @taniel.bsky.social. Take the time.

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

Dear lord, the full context of US Senator @padilla.senate.gov being forcibly removed, pinned down, and handcuffed? He tried to ask a question…when this regime rationalized the (unconstitutional) commandeering of National Guard troops as ~liberating~ people from their elected representatives.

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Reposted by Connie Cho

Liz Fong-Jones (方禮真) @lizthegrey.com · 08/06/2025

Matching up to 2,500 USD to Immigrant Defenders Law Center, for the first people to DM or reply with receipts. They're EIN 47-4473312 for quickly looking up if you have a DAF.

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

Just replaying this clip of Jaden McDaniels smiling before I go to sleep #wolvesinsix

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

We need way more of this type of accountability, but from the bigger outlets (lol I know 🙃).

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

This is the much more informed way to explain why John Roberts is actually the “Chief Fig Leaf.”

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Reposted by Connie Cho

alec karakatsanis @equalityalec.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Last night’s article in the Washington Post about D.C. police responding to a 911 call by illegally letting DOGE onto private property is unlike any news story I have ever read. Every single person should read this article and think about where our society is going.

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

"The media+Democrats are suffering from different manifestations of the same problem. If they were to acknowledge the gravity of the political moment, they might be compelled to rise to meet it."

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Honestly, foreign assistance for the rule of law doesn’t sound so bad. 🤷🏻‍♀️

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

*mumbling to self, these corporations just ~hatched~ a conspiracy* 🐣

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

*whispers to self, those rotten eggs*

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Anyone else breaking out trying to refrain from all the egg puns possible

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Same, and someone who has been obsessively playing Wingspan for the last couple years…💔

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Powerful in a moment of reckoning that transcends party line. #FreeMahmoudKhalil

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Reposted by Connie Cho

Melissa Murray @profmmurray.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

It seems like when you write a decision giving the President king-like powers, you shouldn't be indignant when he acts like a king.

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Reposted by Connie Cho

Anat Shenker-Osorio @anatosaurus.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Critical: "deportation" does not apply here. It's abduction and trafficking.

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Chief Roberts: “girl, we’ve been helping make your neo-Nazi fascist takeover dream come tru for like a decade, so chill on my judges, okay? I gotchu, just appeal it all up, k bb?”

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Fun how it’s so relevant to today.

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Fun fact: this is what my dad wrote his dissertation about. Bedtime stories were ~fun~ in my household.

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Excellent roundup of all the counter arguments to @schumer.senate.gov’s justification (and every other senator that also needs to be primaried) for signing on to the MAGA CR. therevolvingdoorproject.org/schumer-argu... 🧵

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Perhaps the most disturbing attack on our democracy has been the brazenly illegal detention and cruel treatment of Mahmoud Khalil for having a political position that is contrary to the position of the current Administration.

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Reposted by Connie Cho

Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Judge Alsup just said this👇 to the Justice Department about their refusal to let Charles Ezell testify about his (highly dubious) declaration that OPM did not illegally direct mass firings.

You will not bring the people in here to be cross-examined. You’re afraid to do so because you know cross-examination would reveal the truth. This is the U.S. District Court. Whenever you submit declarations, those people should be submitted to the cross-examination, just like the plaintiffs’ side should be. Then we get at the truth of what’s actually true. I tend to doubt that you’re telling me the truth whenever we hear all the evidence eventually. Why can’t you bring your people in to be cross-examined or deposed at their convenience? I said two hours for Mr. Ezell. A deposition at his convenience. And you withdrew his declaration rather than do that? Come on. That’s a sham. It upsets me, I want you to know that. I’ve been practicing in this court for over 50 years and I know how we get at the truth. And you’re not helping me get at the truth. You’re giving me press releases, sham documents. I’m getting mad.

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

“I don’t want to hear any of that ~I’m waiting for the written order.~ This is The Order. FROM THE BENCH. Effective Immediately.” This man said constitutional crisis where, bring it, let me show you what the judiciary can do.

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a bald man in a black robe is making a rude gesture

ALT: a bald man in a black robe is making a rude gesture

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Judge Alsup basically saying, if you’re going to spew illegal trash and then refuse to come answer for it, then I will go right ahead order you to STFU. I am a motherf*cking federal judge. 💀💀💀

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Been listening to the AFGE v. OPM hearing in Alsup’s chambers this morning about the legality of how probationary federal employees were fired. Incredibly satisfying. 🍿🍿🍿 If you’re missing it, some highlights in this thread. 🧵

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Connie Cho @conniedotcho.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Or, controlled opposition (hello, Silicon Valley Democratic Party donors).

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