Seventeen days after immigration enforcement agents murdered Renne Good, a young mother of three, without legal justification, they murdered Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse at a Veterans Hospital, on a Minneapolis street, also without legal justification.
According to witnesses and videos, protesters gathered early Saturday morning, January 25, on Nicollet Street, to protest actions of anti-immigration agents. Some protesters blew whistles to warn residents of the agents’ presence; others recorded the scene. Pretti on one video is seen speaking to officers and filming them with his phone. He is not holding a gun. An officer moves him back toward the sidewalk.
Another video shows Pretti still filming as one of the officers pushes a person who appears to be a bystander or protester onto the sidewalk. As Pretti steps between them, the agent sprays pepper spray into Pretti’s face. Pretti, holding his phone in one hand, holds up his other hand up to protect against the spray. As he tries to interact with the person who was pushed onto the street, an agent tries to pull him away. This agent is now joined by at least four other agents who grab Pretti, who is still holding his phone, and attempt to pin him to the ground.
Pretti is seen in the video wrestled to the ground by at least seven agents. One of the agents strikes Pretti repeatedly with a pepper spray canister while another agent reaches down, removes a gun from Pretti’s waistband, and walks away while holding the weapon. At the same time, while the agents are holding Pretti down, an agent (it appears to be the same agent who pepper sprayed Pretti initially) unholsters his gun and points it at Pretti’s back at close range. While Pretti is on his knees and restrained, the agent who drew his gun appears to fire one shot at Pretti at close range and immediately fires three additional shots. Several agents move away from Pretti, who has collapsed. Another agent unholsters his gun and fires at Pretti. Together, these agents fire six more shots at Pretti while he lies motionless on the ground.
At least 10 shots were fired into Pretti. He lawfully possessed the gun the agents removed from his waist band.
The response of government officials to Pretti’s killing was predictable. Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary, said at a news conference: “Fearing for his life and for the lives of his fellow officers around him, an agent fired defensive shots.” DHS posted to X that “an individual approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun.” The statement said it appeared the man wanted to “massacre” law enforcement. “The officers attempted to disarm this individual, but the armed suspect reacted violently.”
FBI Director Kash Patel said that Pretti was shot by Border Patrol officials after he attempted to “attack” them. “You do not get to attack law enforcement officials in this country without any repercussions,” Patel told Fox News. “We’ve arrested other individuals who made threats to law enforcement online. So we are not messing around.”
Senior Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino told CNN on Sunday that the agents are “victims” in this tragedy. “The victims are the Border Patrol agents,” Bovino said. “The suspect put himself in that situation.”
Since the agents wore masks, their identities presently are unknown. In response to a lawsuit filed by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a federal judge ordered the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies not to destroy evidence related to Pretti’s killing. A hearing is scheduled for Monday.
The savagery of U.S. federal immigration officials is reminiscent of Hitler’s Storm Troopers, or Brownshirts. They were the Nazi Party’s paramilitary wing, named for their distinctive brown uniforms. They were a massive force of angry and disillusioned anti-Semites. They went on wild rampages, murdered people, stormed into homes, dragged people out, beat them, smashed store windows, assaulted and dispersed peaceful protesters.
Hitler’s Storm Troopers have been likened to Trump’s para-military anti-immigration thugs. They’re attired in full military regalia, wear masks, are loaded with weapons and grenades, and engage in violence. They resist being filmed, disrupt peaceful demonstrations, and routinely detain and arrest protesters and observers randomly. They are unaccountable for their conduct, and indeed, are hailed as heroes.
The murder of Alex Pretti is symbolic of a horror that could happen to anybody.
