Eyewitness videos showing at least one federal agent shooting and killing Alex Pretti, 37, in Minneapolis appear to counter the Trump administration’s description of events, presenting two starkly different narratives.
Shortly after the shooting, federal officials said agents had acted in self-defense during a violent altercation Saturday morning. Pretti “approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9-millimeter semi-automatic handgun,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said, adding officers “attempted to disarm” him and he “violently resisted.” President Donald Trump shared a picture of what he said was “the gunman’s gun, loaded (with two additional full magazines!), and ready to go.” White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said Pretti “tried to assassinate federal law enforcement.”
But at least four different videos of the encounter — filmed by eyewitnesses and verified and analyzed by NBC News — run counter to some of the administration’s statements. The videos do not appear to show Pretti holding a weapon during the skirmish that led to his death. The footage shows him coming to the aid of a person federal agents pushed before the encounter.
And some of the video shows a federal agent appearing to reach into the skirmish near Pretti and remove a gun that looked like Pretti’s shortly before he was shot. Bovino and Noem said the situation was under investigation. Pretti was a nurse and had a permit to carry a gun, local officials said.
The videos, shot by witnesses from different vantage points — in the street, in a shop and in a car — show Pretti holding a phone when he and officers began to tussle. Noem declined to say if Pretti pulled out a gun before he was shot.
The recordings begin with Pretti filming masked agents conducting an operation on Nicollet Avenue. Federal officials said officers were there looking for a man wanted in connection with an assault who was in the U.S. illegally. Pretti is a U.S. citizen, local officials said.
In the videos, Pretti is one of several people in the street. Some are blowing whistles and shouting and honking car horns. Pretti, wearing brown pants, a dark hooded coat and a dark baseball cap, can be seen talking to officers at close range in the middle of the street. One of the officers pushes him back toward the curb.
Moments later, Pretti walks back into the street, holding his phone horizontally in his right hand. He waves an oncoming car past him. He moves toward officers who push other people away.
Pretti puts his arm around one of those people and leads them to the curb. A few feet away, an officer pushes a different person, who falls onto the snow-covered curb. Pretti steps between the officer and the person. The deadly tussle begins.
Pretti faces the officer, who pulls out what appears to be a pepper-spray canister. Pretti twists away, raising his left hand above his head, and the officer sprays at Pretti’s face and pushes him.
Pretti moves to the person on the curb and the officer sprays at him again. Pretti appears to put his phone in his right coat pocket, then falls over the person and grabs onto them. The officer pulls at Pretti, who clings to the person on the curb. Several more officers surround Pretti and wrestle him to the pavement.
As they scuffle, the officers are shouting. One, holding an object in his right hand, appears to swing at Pretti’s head three times. Pretti can be seen bent forward, holding himself up with his forearms and hands on the pavement.
Another officer, wearing a gray jacket, approaches the scrum without anything in his hands and reaches toward Pretti. Someone says “gun.” An officer in a black mask standing over Pretti pulls his gun from his holster and points it down at Pretti.
The officer in the gray jacket turns from the scrum with a gun that appears similar to Pretti’s in his right hand. Pretti is on his knees. The first shot rings out. The officer in the gray jacket, now holding the gun pointed down in his hand, jogs away. The officer in the black mask moves behind Pretti, and three more shots are fired. Pretti collapses and rolls onto his back.
DHS didn’t return a request for comment when asked whose gun the officer in the gray jacket was holding.
The officers back up, and more shots, what sounds to be about seven, are fired while Pretti lies still. People are screaming in fear and at the officers. “What the f–k did you just do?” one woman yells. “Oh my god.”
After several moments, officers kneel next to Pretti, appearing to administer him aid. People yell out for someone to call an ambulance.
Pretti was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said.
