Pep Guardiola: Renee Good and Alex Pretti killings are indefensible

Pep Guardiola has revealed his outrage at what he branded the indefensible killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, as he compared the death of the latter to seeing a nurse in the National Health Service gunned down on the grass.

The Manchester City manager has said he has to carry on speaking up to try and produce a better society, as he talked of his anguish at seeing images of what he called genocide in the Gaza Strip and deaths in Ukraine and Sudan.

And while United States president Donald Trump and members of his administration have sought to justify Pretti’s death at the hands of ICE – with Kristi Noem, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security calling the 37-year-old nurse a “domestic terrorist,” Trump saying he was “perhaps” an “insurrectionist” and high-ranking official Stephen Miller branding him a “would-be assassin” – Guardiola said it was impossible to defend his killing.

Good, a mother of three, was also shot dead last month by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minnesota and Guardiola said: “Look what happened in the United States of America. Renee Good and Alex Pretti have been killed.

“Imagine [a nurse in] the NHS, five or six people around him, go on the grass and [fire] 10 shots. Tell me how you can defend that? Make something wrong, [you should] go to the jail.

“What is happening right now, with the technologies and advances that we have, the humanity is better than ever in terms of possibilities. We can reach the moon, we can do everything. But still right now, we kill each other. For what? For what? When I see the images, I am sorry, it hurts. It hurts me, that is why in every position I can help speak up to be a better society, I will try and will be there.”

Guardiola spoke at a rally in his native Barcelona last week in support of Palestinian children in Gaza and he was similarly impassioned as he said people cannot ignore the evidence in front of their eyes.

And he added: “Never, ever in the history of humanity, never ever have we had the info in front of our eyes watching more clearly than now: genocide in Palestine, what happened in Ukraine, what happened in Russia, what happened all around the world; in Sudan, everywhere. What happened in front of us? Do you want to see it? It's our problems as human beings. It's our problems.

“Today we can see it. Before, we could not see it. It hurts me. If it was the opposite side, it would hurt me. Wanting harm for another country? It hurts me. It’s not about the position. Every argument, I’m sorry, this is my feeling. When [someone] completely kills thousands of innocent people, it hurts me. It’s no more complicated than that.

“I have a lot of friends from many, many countries, a lot of friends, but when you have an idea and you need to defend [it] and you have to kill thousands, thousands of people, I’m sorry, I will stand up, always I will be there. Always. I cannot imagine how anybody cannot feel that, when you see the images every single day, the fathers, mothers, kids, what happened, their lives being destroyed and the people cannot feel a little bit of being attached? I’m sorry, I cannot feel it.”

Guardiola said he believes humanitarian aid is more important than the causes that are leading some to kill.

He explained: “The people who have to run away from their countries, in the sea and then go on a boat to get rescued. Don't ask if he is right or wrong; rescue him. It is about a human being. People are dying; you have to help them. Protecting the human being and human life is the only thing we have. Not just in these parts of the world but every part of the world.”