On Saturday, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse and U.S. citizen, was shot and killed by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. There’s a wide gap between what Americans have seen of the shooting and what federal officials are telling them.
Soon after the shooting, Department of Homeland Security officials rushed to defend the officers involved, claiming the victim “approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun” and that when federal agents attempted to disarm him, “the suspect violently resisted.”
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem defended the Border Patrol agent who shot Pretti, saying in a news conference that the agent fired “defensive” shots after the victim violently brandished a gun. “The officers attempted to disarm this individual, but the armed suspect reacted violently,” Noem said.
In a separate press conference, Border Patrol commander-at-large Greg Bovino claimed Pretti may have wanted to do “maximum damage” and “massacre law enforcement.”
But videos taken by bystanders, filmed from several different angles, tell a different story.
