Newly obtained video evidence directly contradicts federal authorities’ claims that a man shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis on Saturday posed a lethal threat, revealing instead that the agent who fired had already disarmed the victim.
The footage, verified by NJTODAY, shows a clear sequence before the shooting: a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent breaks from a struggle with 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a registered nurse, and runs away holding Pretti’s Sig Sauer P320 handgun.
Seconds later, as other officers pin Pretti to the sidewalk, the fatal shots are fired.
This visual account stands in stark opposition to the narrative presented by U.S. Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino. In a statement disseminated through the far right-wing outlet Newsmax, Bovino claimed Pretti “approached U.S. Border Patrol agents” with the weapon and that agents fired “defensive shots” during an armed struggle to disarm him.
“This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement,” Bovino lied.
The video evidence suggests otherwise.
It shows Pretti, who was legally permitted to carry the firearm, using his cellphone to record a federal immigration operation. Agents then accost him.
During the ensuing scuffle, the handgun—which was holstered on Pretti’s hip according to witnesses and local officials—is removed by an ICE agent, while another one of the Gestapo-like forces battered the man’s head with another firearm.
The agent who disarmed Pretti is seen clutching the weapon and moving rapidly away from the scene of the struggle immediately before the shooting.
Pretti’s parents identified him as an intensive care unit nurse who cared for critically ill veterans at a local VA hospital.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O’Hara stated Pretti was a U.S. citizen with a permit for the firearm and a criminal history limited to traffic violations.
“I just saw a video of more than six masked agents pummelling one of our constituents and shooting him to death,” Frey said. “How many more residents, how many more Americans, need to die or get badly hurt for this operation to end?
“How many more lives need to be lost before this administration realizes that a political and partisan narrative is not as important as American values?” Frey asked. “How many times must local and national leaders … plead with you, Donald Trump, to end this operation and recognise that this is not creating safety in our city?”
“In my opinion, in this circumstance, we have the right to bear arms,” said Brennan Gasser, 34, who lives in an apartment above the site of the shooting. “If you had a weapon and they shot him because he was holding a weapon, that’s extremely unjust. People who support the other side should see that if you own a gun, it’s not cause to be shot dead in the streets.”
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and Border Patrol, said the operation targeted a person with a criminal history including assault. A spokesperson said the man who was killed “violently resisted” when officers tried to disarm him, prompting an agent to fire.
The shooting has ignited fierce protests in a city still reeling from two other fatal encounters with federal immigration agents this month. Hundreds braved subzero temperatures to confront lines of federal officers, leading to volleys of tear gas and flashbang grenades.
The disconnect between the official federal account and the video evidence raises profound questions about the conduct and accountability of federal agents deployed in American cities. It presents a scenario where a citizen exercising a constitutional right to bear arms was disarmed, then killed by the authorities who had just secured his weapon.
Bovino declined to provide additional details when pressed by reporters about when agents learned of the firearm or if it was brandished. He referenced an image of the gun, noting, “It appears to be a semiautomatic high-capacity type, possibly a Sig Sauer 9mm.”
For a nation steeped in debate over the Second Amendment and the limits of federal power, the Minneapolis footage offers a grim, silent testimony. It shows the gun, secured and removed. It shows the agents, swarming the disarmed man. And then it records the sound of the shots that killed him.