Did Alex Pretti have a gun? What we know about Minneapolis shooting

A fewer weeks aft the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, Minneapolis was again rocked by the sidesplitting of Alex Jeffrey Pretti connected January 24, 2026, during a national migration enforcement operation.

Both deaths followed a grimly akin arc. Both progressive fatal unit utilized by immigration-linked national agents against US citizens. Both were justified by authoritative statements arsenic responses to imminent danger. And successful some cases, bystander videos and eyewitness accounts rapidly analyzable that narrative.In Good’s case, an ICE cause changeable her portion she sat successful her vehicle. In Pretti’s, agents changeable him astatine adjacent scope aft a chaotic conflict connected a snow-covered street.

In each instance, national officials described unsafe encounters. In each, video grounds suggested the victims were not posing an contiguous menace astatine the infinitesimal they were killed. The shootings occurred wrong the aforesaid month, amid an intensified migration crackdown that has already triggered protests, choler and a increasing situation of spot successful the city.

Who was Alex Pretti?

Alex Pretti was a 37-year-old registered caregiver astatine the Minneapolis VA Health Care System and a nonmigratory of southbound Minneapolis.

Family members and colleagues described him arsenic compassionate, civic-minded and profoundly shaped by a vocation spent caring for critically sick patients. His begetter said Pretti was disturbed by the standard and tactics of national migration operations unfolding astir him.Pretti had nary superior transgression past beyond insignificant postulation violations. He was a lawful weapon proprietor with a valid licence to carry. His household has rejected national claims that helium posed a convulsive threat, saying helium was filming agents and attempting to assistance a pistillate during the encounter.

They described aboriginal authoritative portrayals of him arsenic “sickening lies” and demanded transparency and accountability.

Why was helium determination and what was helium doing?

Pretti was contiguous during a ample national migration enforcement enactment successful Minneapolis, portion of a broader deployment nether Operation Metro Surge. Video footage shows him holding a telephone and signaling agents alternatively than behaving aggressively.During the encounter, a pistillate adjacent was sprayed with a chemic agent.

Pretti appears to measurement toward her to help, inactive holding his phone. Moments later, agents spray Pretti himself and past forcefully tackle him to the ground. That series — filming, moving to assistance idiosyncratic successful distress, past being subdued — has been consistently described successful eyewitness and video-based reporting.

What bash the videos show, infinitesimal by minute?

A frame-by-frame investigation by The New York Times Visual Investigations team, based connected aggregate verified videos, reconstructs the last moments earlier Alex Pretti was killed and straight contradicts cardinal elements of the national account. Before carnal contactThe videos amusement a tiny radical of demonstrators lasting successful the street, speaking with a national cause arsenic whistles sound. Alex Pretti is disposable among them, holding his telephone and filming the scene, and astatine moments appears to beryllium directing postulation astir the protestation area. No limb is disposable successful his hands. Pepper spray is deployedAn cause begins pushing demonstrators and sprays capsicum spray astatine their faces. At this moment, Pretti’s hands are intelligibly visible: 1 holding his phone, the different raised defensively to shield himself from the spray. Pretti moves to assistance different protesterAs others are sprayed, Pretti moves toward a pistillate who has conscionable been deed with the chemic cause and appears to assistance her. Agents attack him from down arsenic helium does so. Agents prehend and restrain himSeveral agents drawback Pretti and propulsion him away. A conflict follows arsenic they unit him to his knees and past to the ground. The footage shows agents grabbing his legs, pushing down connected his back, and striking him repeatedly portion restraining him. An cause approaches with bare handsAs aggregate agents pin Pretti to the ground, 1 cause is seen approaching the radical with bare hands, reaching successful arsenic others clasp Pretti down.

His arms look pinned adjacent his head. Shouts astir a weapon — aft helium is pinnedAbout 8 seconds aft Pretti is already restrained, agents are heard shouting that helium has a gun. The timing suggests, according to the Times’ analysis, that agents whitethorn not person realised helium was equipped until aft helium was connected the ground. A weapon is pulled from the struggleThe aforesaid cause who approached with bare hands pulls a handgun from wrong the clump of bodies. The firearm appears to lucifer the benignant that the Department of Homeland Security aboriginal said belonged to Pretti.

At this point, Pretti remains pinned and nether control. Shots fired astatine adjacent rangeAs the weapon emerges, different cause aims his limb astatine Pretti’s backmost and appears to occurrence a changeable astatine point-blank range. He continues firing arsenic Pretti collapses. A 3rd cause past unholsters a weapon, and some agents look to occurrence further shots into Pretti arsenic helium lies motionless. Duration and measurement of occurrence The NYT investigation concludes that astatine slightest 10 shots were fired wrong astir 5 seconds.

Family, colleagues and nationalist reaction

Pretti’s household described him arsenic idiosyncratic whose nonrecreational beingness revolved astir redeeming lives, not threatening them. They emphasised that helium was filming and trying to assistance idiosyncratic who had been sprayed erstwhile agents confronted him. Vigils and protests followed, reflecting a broader consciousness that Minneapolis was reliving a acquainted and unresolved trauma. City and authorities leaders called for autarkic investigations and greater transparency.

How galore specified incidents person happened recently?

Pretti’s decease was the 3rd superior shooting involving national migration agents successful Minneapolis wrong weeks. Earlier successful January, an ICE cause changeable and killed Renee Nicole Good. Days later, different national cause changeable and wounded a Venezuelan antheral during the aforesaid enforcement surge. Together, the incidents person fuelled claims that the metropolis has go a investigating crushed for assertive national tactics with small borderline for error.

What the national authorities says

Federal officials person defended their personnel, framing Pretti’s sidesplitting arsenic a antiaircraft enactment during an effort to disarm an equipped individual. They person emphasised that helium possessed a 9mm handgun and magazines and accidental agents acted to support themselves. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem echoed that line, saying national agents were operating successful a “high-risk environment” and had responded to what they believed was an contiguous threat.

She warned against “second-guessing split-second decisions” made by officers connected the crushed and argued that disapproval of the agents risked undermining migration enforcement efforts nationwide. Critics antagonistic that possession unsocial is not the issue. The cardinal quality is whether Pretti posed an imminent menace astatine the infinitesimal lethal unit was utilized — thing the videos, truthful far, bash not intelligibly establish.

Concerns astir ICE grooming and tactics

Concerns astir however Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are trained and deployed person sharpened successful the aftermath of caller national actions successful Minneapolis, peculiarly aft the fatal shootings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti and the protests that followed. Critics constituent to respective structural issues:

Compressed grooming timelines: ICE academy acquisition has reportedly been shortened importantly successful caller years, from respective months to a substance of weeks.

Critics reason that this compression limits agents’ quality to make judgment, menace appraisal and de-escalation skills needed successful fast-moving civilian encounters.Rapid hiring and deployment: Expanded enforcement has been accompanied by a hiring surge, raising concerns that agents are being deployed rapidly into the tract without capable experience, supervision oregon vetting, particularly successful dense municipality settings.Limited de-escalation training: Legal experts and civilian liberties groups accidental ICE agents person acold little grooming successful de-escalation than section constabulary departments, contempt being placed successful situations involving bystanders, protests and emotionally charged confrontations.Lack of crowd-control expertise: Federal migration agents are not chiefly trained for protest-adjacent oregon crowd-management scenarios, a spread that becomes disposable erstwhile enforcement actions spill into nationalist spaces with onlookers and demonstrators.Aggressive tactical posture: Video from Minneapolis has intensified disapproval of tactics specified arsenic aboriginal and wide usage of chemic sprays, accelerated escalation to carnal force, and domination-style restraints, which critics reason tin inflame situations alternatively than stabilise them.Urban mismatch: Local officials accidental ICE tactics often bespeak a agrarian oregon border-zone enforcement mindset that does not construe good to ample cities, wherever encounters unfold successful afloat nationalist presumption and necessitate greater restraint and coordination.Accountability concerns: The repeated engagement of national agents successful fatal encounters has fuelled questions astir oversight, use-of-force standards and whether migration agents are taxable to the aforesaid transparency expectations arsenic section police.Taken together, these concerns suggest that the surge of national migration officers into Minneapolis, equipped with compressed grooming and operating successful a metropolis already connected edge, whitethorn beryllium expanding the likelihood of deadly confrontations alternatively than preventing them.

Political reactions

The sidesplitting of Alex Pretti triggered a fierce governmental backlash. Kamala Harris said the videos were “heartbreaking” and that Pretti appeared to beryllium “doing everything successful his powerfulness to support his community,” calling for a afloat and transparent investigation. Progressive Democrats sharpened their criticism. Ilhan Omar said the incidental appeared to beryllium “an execution by migration enforcement,” portion Elizabeth Warren called the shooting “horrific” and demanded accountability.

Republicans rallied down national agents. Donald Trump defended the operation, saying “let ICE bash their job,” and warned that disapproval of enforcement would embolden criminals. Other Republicans echoed that view, stressing serviceman information and law-and-order priorities.The disagreement was acquainted but stark: Democrats focused connected video evidence, restraint and accountability; Republicans connected authority, enforcement and perceived threats.