In attempting to defend the murder of Alex Pretti on Saturday, Trump administration officials repeatedly attempted to portray him as a violent domestic terrorist, even a “murderer,” contradicting new video evidence and first-person accounts of the deadly encounter.
Key data
Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse at a VA hospital, was shot at least 10 by Border Patrol agents in Minnesota on Saturday after he apparently intervened in an altercation between ICE agents and other observers.
The Department of Homeland Security stated after Pretti’s death that he had “violently resisted” officers and that the incident “appeared like a situation in which an individual wanted to cause maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”
Senior Trump officials made similar claims. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed Pretti “attacked” law enforcement while brandishing a gun, and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller described Pretti as a “killer who attempted to attack federal agents.” Both claimed he appeared to be a domestic terrorist.
However, video footage shows that Pretti, who had a weapons license at the time, never pulled out his gun, and it was confiscated by law enforcement before he was shot.
Video evidence and sworn witness testimony indicate that Pretti approached law enforcement during his altercation with other civilians, filming the incident with his phone, but he never pulled out his gun or acted violently toward officers.
ICE agents pepper-sprayed Pretti and the other civilians before tackling him to the ground, and several agents shot him, evidence indicates.
Read more: The Trump administration defends the death of an American in Minneapolis and contradicts the videos
What did Trump say?
President Donald Trump suggested that Pretti’s death was the result of “Democrat-run sanctuary cities and states refusing to cooperate with ICE,” issuing a post on Truth Social on Saturday that condemned Democrats’ opposition to his immigration policies and stated, “Tragically, two American citizens have lost their lives as a result of this chaos caused by Democrats.”
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, Trump did not say whether he believed the officers who shot Pretti acted appropriately, saying only: “We’re searching, we’re reviewing everything, and we’re going to come out with a determination.”
The president also criticized Pretti for carrying a gun, saying: “I don’t like any shooting. I don’t like it…But I don’t like it when someone walks into a protest and has a very powerful gun, fully loaded with two magazines full of bullets as well. That’s not good either.”
Asked Monday about other administration officials who used the term “domestic terrorist” to describe Pretti, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she had “not heard the president characterize Mr. Pretti that way” and stated that Trump “wants to let the facts and the investigation guide themselves.”
What did the Trump administration officially say?
Noem claimed Saturday that Pretti “had a gun and multiple, dozens, of ammunition; with the intent to inflict harm on these officers, coming, brandishing that way.” (“To brandish” a weapon means to display it in an intimidating manner, something there is no evidence Pretti did.)
FBI Director Kash Patel similarly claimed Sunday that Pretti was trying to “attack” law enforcement and falsely claimed the victim had no right to carry a gun at a protest, which several gun rights groups criticized as false.
“You can’t bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any type of protest you want. It’s that simple.” “You have no right to break the law,” Patel told Fox Business, although there is no evidence that Pretti acted illegally.
Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino said it “appears” that Pretti “wanted to cause maximum damage and massacre law enforcement,” although in an interview with CNN on Sunday, the immigration official was unable to substantiate his claims that Pretti “assaulted federal agents.”
Also read: Who was Alex Pretti? Man shot to death by Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis
US officials softened their description of Pretti
Federal officials appear to have tempered their language over time since Pretti’s death: Noem did not repeat false claims that Pretti “brandished” his gun and on Sunday said only that he was “threatening law enforcement,” rather than attacking them.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on Monday also avoided describing Pretti’s actions toward law enforcement as an act of “domestic terrorism,” after Noem and Miller used that language over the weekend.
Leavitt, asked Monday why officials “jumped to conclusions” about Peretti, responded: “Obviously, this has been a very fluid and rapidly evolving situation.” The press secretary said she is only “speaking on behalf” of Trump, who “wants the investigation to continue.”
What does the evidence show?
A video of Pretti’s murder, confirmed by The New York Times, appears to show Pretti approaching federal border agents as they speak with civilians when a person is detained. He’s filming the scene.
After border agents pushed one of the civilians to the ground, Pretti appeared to stand between them and law enforcement, still holding his phone to record.
At no time did Pretti appear to use violence against law enforcement. The officers pepper-sprayed the civilians and wrestled Pretti to the ground. At that time, The Times notes that one officer hit Pretti with a canister of pepper spray while another appeared to grab the gun and remove it from the scene.
While Pretti was on the ground being restrained, ICE agents fired at him, apparently at least 10 shots in a span of five seconds, The Times notes.
What have the witnesses said?
Several witnesses filed affidavits about Pretti’s death in a court case related to the deployment of ICE agents in Minnesota. An anonymous children’s entertainer who witnessed Pretti’s death said they went to the scene because whistles alerted them to the presence of ICE agents in the area.
Pretti appeared to be “acting to facilitate traffic” when the witness arrived at the scene while filming, and after an officer asked the witness and other observers to back off, Pretti stayed in the street and continued filming, later approaching the officers as they “threatened” other observers at the scene.
“I did not see (Pretti) reach for or hold a gun,” the witness said. After ICE agents “pushed” another observer to the ground and began pepper spraying Pretti and the other observers, Pretti “put his hands on his head and the agent sprayed him again and pushed him,” the witness said.
Pretti was “trying to help lift the woman that the ICE agent had pushed to the ground” when the ICE agents grabbed him and “threw” him to the ground, and the witness noted, “It didn’t seem like he was trying to resist, just trying to help the woman up.”
The officers began shooting at Pretti, according to the witness, who wrote, “I don’t know why they shot him. I was just helping.” Another witness, a 29-year-old pediatrician, arrived at the scene after witnessing the shooting from his apartment and noted that they did not see Pretti “attack the officers or brandish any type of weapon.”
The witness approached Pretti to provide medical aid, stating that neither officer was attempting to administer CPR and that Pretti was lying on his side, which is not proper procedure after being shot.
Instead of taking his pulse or administering CPR, the witness wrote, the federal agents “appeared to be counting his gunshot wounds.”
Main criticism
Pretti’s family and friends vehemently condemned the Trump administration’s comments about the murder and its attempts to portray it as violent, describing him instead as a kind nurse dedicated to helping others.
Pretti’s parents sharply criticized the administration’s “disgusting lies” about their son and declared themselves “heartbroken, but also very angry,” describing Pretti in a statement as a “kind soul who cared deeply about his family and friends” and who “wanted to make a difference in this world” before his death. “Please spread the truth about our son. He was a good man,” they wrote.
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How Pretti’s Response Echoes Trump Officials’ Descriptions of Renee Good
The Trump administration’s attempt to blame Pretti following her death coincides with the federal government’s response to the death of Renee Good, another US citizen shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minnesota on January 7.
Trump and his top officials similarly criticized Good after his assassination, falsely claiming that he was trying to run over the ICE agent with his car, despite video evidence proving otherwise.
Noem and Vice President JD Vance described Good as a “domestic terrorist” whose actions constituted an “attack on public order,” and Vance alleged that the victim was a left-wing activist who was part of an alleged “network” attempting to “incite violence” against immigration agents.
There is no evidence to support these claims.
Trump also criticized Good, telling the Times that “he behaved horribly… and then ran him over.” When the Times presented video evidence showing that did not happen, the president reportedly dodged the question of whether Good ran over the ICE agent and simply responded: “From my point of view… it’s a terrible scene.”
Key context
Pretti’s shooting intensified existing tensions in Minnesota and across the country over ICE agents and the Trump administration’s harsh immigration tactics. Tensions first escalated in Minnesota following Good’s death, triggering protests throughout the Minneapolis area and prompting Trump to deploy thousands of additional federal agents to the city.
Pretti’s death sparked national outrage among critics of the Trump administration and even some Republicans. Several Republican senators have called for an investigation into the incident, and Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt stated Sunday that he believed the president was “receiving bad advice.”
Trump announced Monday that he was sending border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota following Pretti’s death and that he had spoken with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, saying the two “seemed to be on the same page” about de-escalating tensions.
This article was originally published in Forbes US
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