A pop icon is questioning why other celebrities have stayed silent following the contentious death of an ICU nurse in Minneapolis.
Pop star Billie Eilish is demanding that her peers speak out against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minneapolis following the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old ICU nurse by federal agents.
Eilish posted to her Instagram Story on Monday, asking, “Hey my fellow celebrities u gonna speak up?” according to Billboard.
Her appeal follows the death of Alex Pretti, who was shot and killed Saturday morning during a federal enforcement action in South Minneapolis.
Pretti worked as an intensive care nurse at the Veterans Administration and was a legal gun owner with a permit to carry a concealed weapon, his family told the Associated Press.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti “approached” U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun while they were conducting “targeted” immigration enforcement operations, according to CBS News. Noem said officers attempted to disarm him, but he “reacted violently,” and “fearing for his life and the lives of his fellow officers around him, an agent fired defensive shots.”
That characterization was contradicted by several eyewitness videos taken at the scene, which showed Pretti focused on helping fellow citizens around him and holding a phone, not a gun, according to a New York Times analysis of the videos.
Eilish’s brother and collaborator, Finneas, addressed the incident in a video the singer reposted.
“The conservative argument that allows school shootings to continue has always basically boiled down to, ‘We have to protect the Second Amendment,’” he said in the Billboard report.
“Every argument I’ve seen for why Alex Pretti’s death was justified yesterday is like, ‘Well he had a gun.’” Finneas stated that Pretti was being “beaten to a pulp on the ground,” did not draw his weapon, and was carrying it legally.
Other public figures, including Pedro Pascal and Jennifer Aniston, have also condemned the violence, according to The Blast and CNN.
Singer Olivia Rodrigo called the recent actions of federal agents “unconscionable,” according to Consequence of Sound.
The growing celebrity activism follows a pattern of recent violence in the Twin Cities; weeks before Pretti’s death, Renee Good was also shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis in a case the Hennepin County Medical Examiner ruled a homicide, according to FOX 9.
Eilish previously addressed the unrest in the city while accepting the 2026 MLK Jr. Beloved Community Award for Environmental Justice on Jan. 17, according to Billboard.
“We’re seeing our neighbors being kidnapped, peaceful protesters being assaulted and murdered, our civil rights being stripped,” she said. She added that many Americans “no longer feel safe in our own homes or in our streets.”