The Department of Homeland Security hasn’t provided evidence for some statements administration officials made within hours of the Jan. 24 fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis, and some of those statements appear to be contradicted by bystander video shared publicly so far.
Multiple analyses of videos of the killing raise questions about the administration’s account that Pretti “approached” officers with a handgun, “violently resisted” an attempt to “disarm” him, and “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”
We’d caution that it’s early in the investigation and that more information should be revealed, particularly about what happened before what’s shown in available bystander videos. DHS told NBC News that there is body-camera video available from multiple federal agents, but those videos have not been publicly released.
Pretti, a 37-year-old man who worked as an intensive care unit nurse, had a handgun when he was wrestled to the ground by immigration officers. But it’s unclear when exactly officers were aware of the weapon and whether Pretti had shown the gun or threatened officers with it, as administration comments have suggested.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told CBS News that Pretti “did have a permit for the handgun to carry it.” In Minnesota, a permit is required to carry a gun in public, and the gun doesn’t need to be concealed.
Pretti was shot and killed by Border Patrol officers shortly after 9 a.m. Central time. Media reports soon said that according to DHS, Pretti had a gun. At 11:31 a.m. Central time, DHS posted a statement on X. “At 9:05 AM CT, as DHS law enforcement officers were conducting a targeted operation in Minneapolis against an illegal alien wanted for violent assault, an individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun, seen here,” DHS said, providing a picture of the handgun on what appears to be the seat of a car. “The officers attempted to disarm the suspect but the armed suspect violently resisted. More details on the armed struggle are forthcoming. Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, an agent fired defensive shots. … The suspect also had 2 magazines and no ID—this looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”
In separate press conferences the same day, Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol commander in charge of the immigration operation in Minneapolis, and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem made similar statements, using much of the DHS language, including the speculation that Pretti wanted to “kill” (Noem’s wording) or “massacre” (Bovino’s) law enforcement officers.
“This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement,” Bovino said.
Noem said that Pretti had “attacked those officers, had a weapon on him, and multiple, dozens of rounds of ammunition, wishing to inflict harm on these officers coming, brandishing like that, and impeding their work that they were doing.”
Bovino didn’t answer questions from reporters about when agents knew about Pretti’s firearm and whether he ever brandished it at agents. “This is under investigation. Those facts will come to light,” he said.
On Truth Social, President Donald Trump posted the DHS picture of the firearm and raised questions about intent, calling Pretti a “gunman.” Trump said: “This is the gunman’s gun, loaded (with two additional full magazines!), and ready to go – What is that all about?”
On X, Stephen Miller, the White House’s homeland security adviser and a deputy chief of staff, went further than the DHS or Trump statements, writing that an “assassin tried to murder federal agents.”
Multiple analyses of the videos of the incident available so far do not show Pretti holding the gun or threatening law enforcement officials with it. Again, more information, particularly about Pretti’s earlier interactions with law enforcement, may later be revealed.
O’Hara told CBS News on Jan. 25, “I cannot speculate, but I do not have any – any evidence that I have seen that suggests that the weapon was brandished.”
John Cohen, a former acting DHS undersecretary for intelligence, a police trainer and an ABC News contributor, told the network, “What the videos depict is that this guy did not walk up to anybody from CBP in a threatening manner.” Cohen said that “there’s nothing in the video evidence that we’ve seen thus far” to support DHS’ statement that he intended to shoot law enforcement officers.”
In the videos, Pretti is seen holding his phone, appearing to record video of the federal officers in the street, moments before an altercation where agents push another apparent demonstrator to the ground and then use pepper spray on Pretti. Several agents then force Pretti to the ground as he appears to resist. An agent removes a gun from Pretti’s waistband, and Pretti is shot multiple times.
The Minnesota Star Tribune reviewed more than six videos as well as accounts from eyewitnesses. “The footage does not show him [Pretti] pointing a firearm, attempting to fire a weapon, or advancing toward agents with a gun raised. He is instead captured holding a cellphone, appearing to record,” the newspaper wrote.
“Federal officials have released no evidence supporting claims about Pretti’s intent,” the Star Tribune also said. “Under Minnesota law, carrying a handgun in public is legal with a permit, and law enforcement sources said Pretti was a lawful gun owner.”
The New York Times wrote in its analysis of videos, “About eight seconds after he is pinned, agents yell that he has a gun, indicating that they may not have known he was armed until he was on the ground.” One agent “pulls a gun from among the group that appears to match the profile of a firearm DHS said belonged to Mr. Pretti. The agents appear to have him under their control, with his arms pinned near his head. As the gun emerges from the melee, another agent aims his own firearm at Mr. Pretti’s back and appears to fire one shot at close range.”
In its breakdown of available videos, the Washington Post wrote that “[l]ess than a second” after an agent “emerged from the scrum” with Pretti’s firearm, “the first of what appear to be 10 shots was fired. It is not clear from the video whether the other agents realized Pretti — who local authorities believe had a permit to carry the weapon — had been disarmed.”
Hearst Television’s National Investigative Unit also reviewed multiple video angles of the shooting. One angle shows an officer crouching at Pretti’s side, Hearst said, and “searching Pretti’s clothing and is heard saying, ‘Where’s the gun?’ Another officer, a distance away, responds, ‘I’ve got the gun.'”
“At no time in any of the three videos reviewed is Pretti seen brandishing a gun,” Hearst said.
CNN said that “taken together,” cell phone footage from multiple angles, appears “at odds with the Department of Homeland Security’s initial claims about the lead up to officers firing on Alex Pretti.”
One of the videos it analyzed “seems to show officers approaching Pretti instead of the other way around. We’ll see later that Pretti does appear to have had a gun in his waistband, but this video shows he didn’t have a gun in his hand, only a phone,” CNN said.
On Jan. 25, a day after the shooting, CNN’s Dana Bash repeatedly pressed Bovino about the evidence behind DHS’ statements. She asked whether Pretti was “brandishing” the gun, as Noem had said. “Was he brandishing it? Was he a threat because he had a gun in his hand that put law enforcement in danger?” Bash asked.
Bovino responded: “Dana, we heard the law enforcement officer say, ‘Gun, gun, gun.’ So, at some point, they knew there was a gun. So, again, that is going to be part of that investigation as to what was happening on the ground there between those victims, the Border Patrol agent victims, and the suspect.” He later said that Pretti “brought a semiautomatic weapon to a riot, assaulted federal officers, and at some point they saw that weapon. So I do believe the secretary is 100% spot on in what she said.”
We asked DHS about the agency’s early statements on the shooting, including what Noem meant when she said Pretti was “brandishing” a weapon. We haven’t received a response.
CNN said when it asked DHS about an agent removing Pretti’s gun before the shooting, it repeated the statement that “officers attempted to disarm the suspect but the armed suspect violently resisted.”
When asked on Jan. 25 by a Wall Street Journal reporter whether the shooting by federal agents was justified, Trump didn’t defend the shooting as DHS had. “We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination,” he said.
“I don’t like any shooting. I don’t like it,” Trump said, according to the Journal. “But I don’t like it when somebody goes into a protest and he’s got a very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines loaded up with bullets also. That doesn’t play good either.”
D’Angelo Gore contributed to this story.
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