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By Khaleda Rahman
National Correspondent
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President Donald Trump has condemned Alex Pretti as “crazed and out of control” in response to new videos showing him in a confrontation with federal immigration officers more than a week before he was shot and killed.
Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, was fatally shot during an encounter with Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis on January 24.
Videos that emerged on Wednesday show he was forcefully taken to the ground by federal agents after kicking out the taillight of the vehicle during an earlier encounter with federal agents on January 13.
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The president called Pretti an “agitator and perhaps, insurrectionist” in a post on Truth Social early on Friday.
Trump wrote that Pretti’s “stock has gone way down with the just released video of him screaming and spitting in the face of a very calm and under control ICE Officer, and then crazily kicking in a new and very expensive government vehicle.”
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He added that “the ICE Officer was calm and cool, not an easy thing to be under those circumstances!”
Steve Schleicher, an attorney representing Pretti’s parents. said the earlier altercation in no way justified the fatal shooting of Pretti on January 24.
Newsweek has contacted the White House and Department of Homeland Security for further comment via emails sent outside regular business hours.
Why It Matters
Pretti’s death and the response from senior Trump administration officials sparked a backlash from both sides of the political aisle and nationwide protests.
Videos of the January 24 shooting appeared to undercut the Trump administration’s initial claims that an agent had fired “defensive shots” after Pretti - a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry - approached them "brandishing" a firearm.
In the wake of the shooting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti had committed an “act of domestic terrorism” and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller described him as a “would-be assassin.”
The White House earlier this week sought to distance the president from inflammatory comments made by his administration. The president told reporters on Tuesday that he disagreed that Pretti was a “would-be assassin” and that he wants an “honest” investigation into Pretti’s shooting.
Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino has since left Minneapolis, while Trump has tasked Tom Homan, the White House border czar, to take control of immigration enforcement operations there.
Pretti was the second U.S. citizen killed in Minneapolis this month by federal immigration agents after Renee Nicole Good, a mother of three, was fatally shot in her vehicle on January 7.
What To Know
A video of the January 13 confrontation was first posted by The News Movement, an online media outlet, on Wednesday. Another video of the same encounter, filmed by Max Shapiro, was published by the Minnesota Star Tribune and later obtained by The Associated Press.
A representative for the Pretti family confirmed to Newsweek that the man in the footage was Pretti.
The video from The News Movement shows Pretti at one point appearing to spit and yell towards the driver’s side of a Ford Expedition as the federal agents in the vehicle were preparing to leave the scene.
As the vehicle starts to drive off, Pretti kicks at the taillight and then delivers a second kick that breaks the plastic and leaves the taillight dangling.
Both videos show the rear door of the vehicle opening and an immigration agent in a gas mask and helmet getting out.
The officer approaches and grabs Pretti, pulling him back toward the vehicle, as other masked and helmeted officers surround them and force Pretti to the ground.
Others stand guard between them and screaming bystanders, before the agents set off tear gas canisters and withdraw.
Pretti’s winter coat comes off when he’s on the ground and when he turns his back to the camera, what appears to be a handgun is visible in his waistband. At no point is he seen reaching for the gun and it is unclear whether the federal agents saw it.
MAGA commentators seized on the new videos, claiming they prove Pretti was an "agitator" who sought to attack federal law enforcement.
However, legal experts have told Newsweek that Pretti's actions during the earlier confrontation would have no legal bearing on whether or not the use of lethal force was justified in the fatal shooting more than a week later.
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social early Friday: “Agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist, Alex Pretti’s stock has gone way down with the just released video of him screaming and spitting in the face of a very calm and under control ICE Officer, and then crazily kicking in a new and very expensive government vehicle, so hard and violent, in fact, that the taillight broke off in pieces. It was quite a display of abuse and anger, for all to see, crazed and out of control. The ICE Officer was calm and cool, not an easy thing to be under those circumstances! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”
Steve Schleicher, an attorney representing Pretti parents, said in a statement provided to Newsweek: "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. Nothing that happened a full week before could possibly have justified Alex’s killing at the hands of ICE on Jan 24.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on statements made after the shooting of Pretti: “We were being relayed information from on the ground from CBP agents and officers that were there. We were using the best information we had at the time.”
Asked about the January 13 confrontation, Noem said: “Well, clearly there's a history there of attacking our law enforcement officers and our CBP and ICE officers and that's an example of what our officers have had to face every single day in Minneapolis and in Minnesota.”
White House border czar Tom Homan told reporters at a news conference in Minneapolis on Thursday, when asked about the videos of the January 13 confrontation: "Do I have an opinion? Yeah, my personal opinion, but I'm not going to share that with you. I'm going to tell you, let the investigation play out and see where it goes."
Emmanuel Mauleón, an associate professor of law at the University of Minnesota, previously told Newsweek: “A prior confrontation—one that occurred eleven days earlier and involved, at most, yelling at officers and breaking a taillight—has no legal bearing on whether lethal force was justified at the moment Pretti was shot. Fourth Amendment use-of-force analysis turns on whether an officer reasonably perceived an imminent threat at that moment, not on after-the-fact efforts to recast minor prior conduct as evidence of dangerousness. This point is especially salient given that there is absolutely no evidence that the CBP officers involved in the shooting even knew of the earlier interaction.”
Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and president of West Coast Trial Lawyers in Los Angeles, previously told Newsweek: "The video is a bad look for Pretti, but it’s for the court of public opinion and not evidence that will ever make it into a courtroom. Unless the Border Patrol agents knew about the prior violence, it is not relevant to whether the subsequent use of deadly force was justified.”
What Happens Next
The shooting has prompted calls from both Republicans and Democrats for Noem to step down.
The two Customs and Border Protection agents involved in the fatal shooting of Pretti have been placed on administrative leave, but the Department of Homeland Security has not identified them.
Three federal investigations into the shooting are underway. The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI were investigating the shooting and U.S. Customs and Border Protection was "conducting their own internal review," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday.
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