In a tragic incident on Saturday, 37-year-old registered nurse Alex Pretti was shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis. Eyewitness cell phone footage has now emerged showing Pretti not holding a gun but a cell phone during the confrontation. This testimony flatly refutes the account of senior officials in the Trump administration, who said he had threatened to “massacre” officers.
According to reports, Minneapolis police were alerted to the shooting at 9:03 AM. A bystander captured the frantic scene leading up to the gunfire. Security video footage of the incident shows multiple officers wrestling Pretti to the ground and down on her stomach. At one point in the showdown, an officer drew for Pretti’s lower back. Then, as he moved out of view, he raised what appeared to be a gun. Just under one second later, one of the other agents pulled out their firearm and shot Pretti multiple times at close range.
Agent Pretti’s situation deteriorated quickly, with a total of seven agents surrounding Pretti out of concern for their safety. A mistaken border patrol agent shooting in self-defense. He felt that his life and the lives of his fellow officers were under threat. According to eyewitness statements, Pretti did not draw a gun throughout the encounter.
Two such witnesses have come forward and submitted sworn affidavits in federal court. They claim that Pretti was never pointing a gun at any time. As one witness described it, “I never witnessed him assault the agents or draw a weapon in any form.” As one witness pointed out, “The gentleman was not charging the agents with a weapon.”
The claims about the incident were even more muddied by Kristi Noem’s, the Secretary of Homeland Security’s, statements. Noem claimed that Pretti had come at border patrol agents while “brandishing a 9mm semi-automatic handgun.” Perhaps more importantly, she failed to explain whether he even pulled the gun out.
Pretti’s parents have aggressively challenged the police account of their son’s death. They went on to call their son “heartbroken but very angry” and denounced the conduct of the agents that killed him. Most important, they continued violently asserting, The repugnant and despicable lies spread about our son by the administration are horrid and disgusting. Common sense that a 57-year-old man clearly isn’t waving a gun around when jumped by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE jackboots.
They shined a light on particularly egregious details from the video evidence. As they described, “He holds his phone in his right hand, and then his empty left hand above his head while simply trying to shield the woman ICE just knocked down—getting pepper-sprayed in the process.” They insisted that the truth come to light. “Tell the real story about our son,” they urged. To love him even more, we could say that he was a good man.
As investigations move forward into this incident, a dichotomy of narratives continues to play out over Pretti’s actions prior to his death. Other law enforcement personnel argue that he was a threat to law enforcement. Through eyewitness accounts, we have learned that he was like so many unarmed individuals, a victim of tragic circumstance.