New footage obtained by The Independent shows the aftermath of the 13 January confrontation between federal agents and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, where they tackled the intensive care nurse to the ground and sprayed gas at protesters.
The video, which offers a different angle than others released in recent days, shows the moments following the heated altercation where Pretti kicked a government vehicle taillight, prompting a group of agents to wrestle him to the pavement on a Minneapolis street.
The incident took place 11 days before Pretti, 37, was fatally shot in the street by two Border Patrol agents. His death sparked protests and outrage as calls for ICE to tone down its tactics in Minnesota continue to grow.
Two witnesses from Minneapolis who filmed the incident at the intersection of East 36 Street and Park Avenue told The Independent that they saw Pretti hit the vehicle’s taillight.
Immediately after, an officer got out of the vehicle and between four and five federal agents, heavily armed and in gas masks, surrounded Pretti before they aggressively pinned him.
In the moments leading up to the clash, the witnesses claimed agents had been “very, very aggressive”, angering neighbors who had gathered over concerns that the officers were going to detain individuals they accused of being illegally in the country.
“A lot of people are very angry because [the agents] were being very, very aggressive…” said one witness who was granted anonymity for security reasons. “By all counts they appeared to be trying to kick up this kind of reaction.”
As Pretti was pinned, people in the crowd screamed at the agents, blowing whistles and honking their horns to notify the neighborhood about their presence.
Federal officers let Pretti out of their grasp, and what appeared to be a gun was seen in his waistband in videos released earlier this week showing the confrontation. There was no arrest and the federal officers returned to the vehicles.
Shortly afterwards, the security forces fired what appeared to be pepper spray and gas at the crowd.
“They’re brutalizing people. They were firing directly into the crowds. Then just smoked the crap out of our neighborhood,” the second witness said.
“Overwhelmingly, we came away, both of us, shocked at how ICE had reacted to this situation,” the witness added. “They tear-gassed 50 people. They beat people up. They used pepper spray. They shot pepper balls at people.”
After the agents deployed gas, one of them was seen in the footage hitting another on the shoulder, as though to signal it was time to leave. The agents left without making any arrests.
The witnesses added that they did not see Pretti’s gun during the encounter.
Homeland Security Investigations is reviewing the incident, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed to The Independent.
Footage of Pretti kicking a government vehicle led to Republican commentators pointing to it as evidence that he was not a peaceful protester, a claim that was disputed by Steve Schleicher, an attorney for Pretti’s family.
“A week before Alex was gunned down in the street – despite posing no threat to anyone – he was violently assaulted by a group of ICE agents,” Schleicher said in a previous statement to The Independent. “Nothing that happened a full week before could possibly have justified Alex’s killing at the hands of ICE on Jan 24.”
The Department of Homeland Security said it had “no record of this incident.”
The day before the video was published, there were reports that Pretti sustained a broken rib after he was tackled by federal officers approximately a week before he was killed. It was not immediately clear whether Pretti’s alleged injury was sustained in the altercation in the latest footage of the January 13 incident.
On January 24, Pretti was shot and killed by federal agents after he intervened to help two female protesters, according to a preliminary review of the incident, which laid out a timeline. The confrontation began when an officer with U.S. Customs and Border Protection ordered the female protesters to move out of the road, but one of them didn’t.
“The CBPO pushed them both away and one of the females ran to a male, later identified as 37-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a US citizen,” the report said.
The officer attempted to move the woman and Pretti out of the road, but when they did not, the agent deployed pepper spray toward both of them, the report said.
A struggle ensued between the federal agent and Pretti, who “resisted” the officer’s attempts to take him into custody.
“During the struggle, a [Border Protection agent] yelled, ‘He's got a gun!’ multiple times,” the report continued. Approximately five seconds later, the agent “discharged his CBP-issued Glock 19 and a CBPO also discharged his CBP-issued Glock 47 at Pretti.”
In video footage of the shooting, Pretti was seen heatedly engaging with an officer and holding up a cell phone, not a gun, as initially claimed by administration officials.
Pretti appeared to say, “Do not touch me,” as an agent pushed into his chest. Later, the footage returned to Pretti as a group of agents piled on top of him and pounded him with blows. Gunshots then rang out and a group of observers scattered.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem swiftly claimed without evidence that Pretti had “attacked” officers and was “brandishing” a gun. Pretti was licensed to carry a concealed weapon in Minnesota, and it was taken from his waistband area by a federal agent moments before he was shot at least 10 times, video evidence has since shown.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller referred to Pretti as “a domestic terrorist” who had tried “to assassinate federal law enforcement,” echoing claims made by Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino.
However, when the videos were released, there was backlash across Minnesota and the nation over Pretti’s killing. That has continued as officials continue to demand Noem’s job and threaten impeachment over the tactics seen in Minnesota.
Protestors have demanded accountability for the killing of Pretti and Renee Good, who was killed by an ICE agent early in the month. Video showed Good driving away from officers, nearly clipping one, who opened fire and killed the 37-year-old mom.
ICE and Border Patrol agents have surged into Minnesota in recent weeks to carry out Trump’s campaign pledge for mass deportations. But it has been met with anger by locals, and nationwide protests over the killings. Pretti’s death seemingly led to a change in tune from the Trump administration about the surge.
“[Trump] saw it wasn’t playing well,” a Republican lawmaker told NBC News. “The visuals were not playing well. He understands TV… He saw it for himself.”
Following public uproar, Bovino, who has become the face of the Trump administration’s immigration surge in cities across the country, was sent back to California.
Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, was sent to Minneapolis instead and will remain there “until the problem is gone,” he said at a Thursday press conference.
“No agency is perfect – we have recognised certain improvements could and should be made,” Homan said, pledging to restore “safety” to the city’s streets while also insisting that he would not be “surrendering the president’s mission.”
Agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement have since been ordered not to engage with protesters in Minnesota in an apparent attempt by the Trump administration to lower the temperature.
“DO NOT COMMUNICATE OR ENGAGE WITH AGITATORS,” the official said in the email, according to the news agency. “It serves no purpose other than inflaming the situation. No one is going to convince the other. The only communication should be the officers issuing commands.”
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