Bill Ackman has contributed $10,000 to the family of Alex Pretti, an anti-ICE protester who was tragically killed, just days after he was shot by a US Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis.
Ackman, the billionaire founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, made this donation via the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe, which had raised over $1.2 million for Pretti’s family by Monday afternoon, as per NY POST.
Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and US citizen, was fatally shot on Saturday during a confrontation with federal agents in Minneapolis while he was documenting an enforcement action related to increased ICE operations in the area.
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Bill Ackman targets Tim Walz
Earlier, Ackman seemed to hold Minnesota Governor Tim Walz responsible for Pretti's death, posting on X: “It is almost as if the governor of Minnesota called for protesters to intervene in ICE enforcements in an incendiary manner?”
“Inciting the people to rise up against law enforcement is guaranteed to end badly, and now we have seen the tragic consequences,” Ackman added, urging Walz “and those that emulate him” to “take the temperature down before more lives are lost.”
Bill Ackman contribute to ICE agent's GoFundMe campaign
{{/usCountry}}“Inciting the people to rise up against law enforcement is guaranteed to end badly, and now we have seen the tragic consequences,” Ackman added, urging Walz “and those that emulate him” to “take the temperature down before more lives are lost.”
Bill Ackman contribute to ICE agent's GoFundMe campaign
{{/usCountry}}Earlier this month, Ackman contributed $10,000 to a GoFundMe campaign established to support Jonathan Ross, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, 37, during a traffic stop in Minneapolis.
The donation to Ross incited outrage on social media, prompting internet users to call for a boycott of the Tex-Mex fast-casual restaurant chain Chipotle, which had Ackman’s Pershing Square as an investor nearly a decade ago.
In response, the company aimed to dissociate itself from Ackman by reminding the public that the hedge fund mogul is "not affiliated with Chipotle" after Pershing Square divested all of its shares in the chain by the end of last year.
Defending his donation move, Ackman stated on X that he is a “strong proponent of our legal principle that one is innocent until proven guilty.”
He further mentioned that he intended to contribute to Good’s family fundraiser but found it closed by the time he tried to do so.