Doc Coyle, Neil Schon and other artists react in horror to the fatal shooting during Minneapolis protests. Your clear message to the government.
The actions of the American immigration agency ICE against citizens and demonstrators in Minneapolis have been on everyone’s lips for several weeks and are causing controversy. Now there was another incident in the city that further exacerbated the difficult political climate. Minneapolis resident Alex Patti was shot and killed during an anti-ICE protest.
Voices from the culture are getting louder
The incident is part of a series of tragic events that occurred before and during the protests in the city. This third case follows the cases of Renee Gold on January 7, 2026 and Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis on January 14, 2026. Both were shot. There was also a protest from the ranks of the film world about the Renee Good case, at the Golden Globes 2026, which ME also reported on.
What exactly happened? Alex Patti was an ICU nurse serving at a Department of Veterans Affairs facility. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told NBC in a news conference that the victim was shot “shortly before 9 a.m. following a heated confrontation between border agents and demonstrators protesting the administration’s immigration policies.”
The exact circumstances of Saturday’s incident remain unclear, and numerous questions remain unanswered. While the Department of Homeland Security speaks of a case of self-defense, video recordings of the event are fueling criticism of the immigration agency ICE’s crackdown on migrants and its aggressive use against demonstrating citizens.
Artists, especially from the rock and metal scene, have now spoken out about the latest incident.
Criticism of the ICE’s actions
For example, guitarist Doc Coyle spoke up with several tweets on X. He responded to another user by posting a picture of the late freedom fighter Martin Luther King sitting in a cell. He wrote: “Protest and civil disobedience belong together. Read up on history. Why were Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers and Mahatma Gandhi killed? Because they followed all the rules. Without unrest you can’t change anything.”
He then had an argument with the same user about what was happening in Minneapolis. In it he asked, among other things: “Honestly, when you see protests in other countries in the news, do you always assume that people are stupid and have no good reason to protest?”
Around the same time, the musician posted a longer explanation of his perspective on things: “What really fascinates and confuses me is how we try to understand and judge these killings that are caught on camera. It’s as if we instinctively understand that there is something like a spectrum or a scale from 1 to 10: At one end there is a completely justified killing, such as a psychopath armed with a hatchet or a literal gun battle with an attacker. At the other end there would be something like a police officer shooting a child holding an ice cream because he mistook it for a weapon. But the incidents that become these big stories are usually much more open to interpretation. They’re somewhere between 4 and 6 on that scale. And then we break them down frame by frame, like a slow motion on a sports replay, and people decide: If it’s just an inch over the line one way or the other, then it’s either brutal, evil murder (187) or 100% justified self-defense, no other choice. But morality just can’t work that way, even if the law does. If there is a God, do you really think he plays the video footage at the gates of heaven to see which side of that line you are on by an inch of hell or heaven? Like Superman when he kills Zod at the end of Man of Steel And I think that’s exactly what our society should be reckoning with: But this government has taken away all humanity. They are always 100% right, the dead American is a terrorist, a psychopath, and his death should be celebrated Even if it has to happen every now and then.”
He also retweeted a video in which an ICE officer claimed he was photographing someone’s car to add them to a “nice little database” of “domestic terrorists.” Coyle explained: “They don’t kill you because you’re a terrorist. They call you a terrorist so they can kill you. Yes, it’s like that other stupid slogan, except this one is actually true.”
More rockers spoke up
Doc Coyle’s colleagues also commented on X. Journey guitarist Neil Schon wrote under a picture of Alex confronting Patti: “This is complete madness and it has to stop.”
He previously responded to a tweet from author Stephen King in which he said: “ICE is the American Gestapo.” The musician answered simply: “Hired thugs.”
Silent Planet singer Garrett Russell was the first to comment on Alex Patti’s death by retweeting an October 2025 tweet from the US Department of Homeland Security.
This showed an image from the video game series Halo with the comment: “End this fight.” Russell asked in his retweet: “Who could have predicted?”
