Border Patrol Agents Killed Alex Pretti, an American Citizen and ICU Nurse, in Minneapolis

Details

On January 24, 2026, U.S. Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old American citizen and intensive care nurse, in Minneapolis. Pretti was filming federal agents with his cellphone and attempting to help a woman who had been pushed to the ground when agents pepper-sprayed him, wrestled him to the ground, removed his legally carried firearm, and then shot him approximately ten times over five seconds.

According to The Wall Street Journal's frame-by-frame analysis, an agent can be seen pulling a handgun away from Pretti, and less than a second later another agent opened fire. Pretti was face-down, pinned to the ground by multiple agents when he was killed.

Background

Pretti worked as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital and was a member of the American Federation of Government Employees, the union representing federal employees. According to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara, Pretti was a U.S. citizen with no criminal record and possessed a valid Minnesota permit to carry a firearm. Under Minnesota law, permit holders may legally carry firearms openly or concealed in public.

Dr. Dimitri Drekonja, a colleague at the VA hospital, told ABC News that Pretti was an "incredibly competent person" who was "good at his job," adding: "There is no reason for a guy like that to be dead, let alone to be killed by the agents of a government that employed him."

The shooting occurred during "Operation Metro Surge," a federal immigration enforcement operation that deployed approximately 2,000 agents to the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area beginning January 6, 2026. Pretti's death was the third shooting by federal agents in Minneapolis in less than three weeks, including the January 7 killing of Renee Good, also a 37-year-old American citizen.

Video Evidence Contradicts Federal Account

The Department of Homeland Security claimed that Pretti "approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun" and "violently resisted" when agents attempted to disarm him. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino stated at a press conference that Pretti appeared to want to do "maximum damage and massacre law enforcement."

Multiple videos verified by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Reuters appear to directly contradict this account:

• Pretti was holding a cellphone in his right hand and nothing in his left hand when he approached agents
• He stepped between a woman and an agent who was pepper-spraying her, putting his arm around the woman
• Agents pepper-sprayed Pretti and wrestled him to the ground
• One agent removed Pretti's firearm while he was pinned face-down
• Less than one second after the gun was removed, two other agents opened fire
• At least ten shots were fired over approximately five seconds
• Approximately eight seconds after Pretti was pinned to the ground, agents yelled that he had a gun

According to forensic audio analyst Robert Maher of Montana State University, analysis of the video's audio suggests a total of ten shots were fired from a single semiautomatic firearm. About a minute after the shooting, bystander footage shows officers shouting "Where is the gun?" as they attempted to apply first aid to Pretti.

Two witnesses provided sworn court filings disputing the federal account. One stated: "I have read the statement from DHS about what happened and it is wrong. The man did not approach the agents with a gun. He approached them with a camera. He was just trying to help a woman get up and they took him to the ground."

Federal Officials Block State Investigation

Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, told reporters that federal agents barred state investigators from the scene of the shooting. Even after the state agency obtained a search warrant signed by a judge to access the public sidewalk, federal officials refused to comply.

"Even when our officers initially responded to the scene, our watch commander was not given even the most basic information that is typical in a law enforcement-involved shooting," Minneapolis Police Chief O'Hara said.

Late Saturday, a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order barring DHS and other federal agencies from destroying or altering evidence related to the shooting. U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud, a Trump appointee, scheduled a hearing for Monday to review the order.

"Federal agents are not above the law and Alex Pretti is certainly not beneath it," Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison stated. "A full, impartial, and transparent investigation into his fatal shooting at the hands of DHS agents is non-negotiable."

DHS said it is leading the investigation into the shooting, with assistance from the FBI. The Justice Department's civil rights division, which historically investigates shootings involving federal law enforcement, is not expected to investigate, according to The New York Times.

Federal Government Turns Over Evidence (July 2026)

Nearly six months after the shooting, federal prosecutors finally handed over the evidence Minnesota investigators had long sought in the Pretti and Good killings. On July 13, 2026, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced that the office of U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Daniel Rosen had turned over previously withheld hard drives containing statements, police body-camera video, and other materials, and that the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension had taken custody of the evidence. "The wonderful thing now is we have all the evidence," Moriarty said. The BCA said "great strides have been made" toward a "thorough and complete review."

The turnover appeared to stem from a reciprocal-evidence standoff rather than a change of heart: documents in the state's lawsuit indicate federal officials moved only after seeking evidence Minnesota had gathered in the prosecution of ICE agent Christian Castro, charged with assault and falsely reporting a crime in the January 14, 2026 nonfatal shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis. "We are willing to share evidence with you if the exchange is reciprocal," BCA Superintendent Drew Evans wrote in a legal filing. Attorney General Keith Ellison said he remained "deeply troubled" that it took more than half a year: "It should never have taken this long."

For Pretti's family, the development fell short of a commitment to accountability. Their attorney, Steve Schleicher, said that in a meeting the afternoon of July 13, Rosen's office would not confirm any cooperation agreement between state and federal agencies. "No family should be required to beg federal authorities to do their job," Schleicher said. "Without a public commitment by federal authorities to cooperate with the state, it is difficult—if not, impossible—to pursue justice that holds the individuals accountable for Alex's death." Moriarty said she was not prepared to drop the state's lawsuit against the Trump administration, which seeks access to evidence in all three Minneapolis shootings.

Administration Response

President Trump posted on social media that Governor Walz and the Minneapolis mayor "are inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric."

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who was born in Minneapolis, wrote on X: "Thank God for the patriots of @ICEgov—we have your back 100%. You are SAVING the country. Shame on the leadership of Minnesota—and the lunatics in the street. ICE > MN."

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters that Pretti had shown up to "inflict maximum damage on individuals" and that his actions amounted to "domestic terrorism." No evidence has been produced to support these claims.

Family Response

Pretti's parents told The Associated Press they were "sickened" by administration officials suggesting their son was a domestic terrorist. His mother, Susan Pretti, said her son was passionate about the environment and "took his dog everywhere he went."

Gun Rights Groups' Response

The shooting prompted criticism from gun rights organizations across the political spectrum, who questioned whether federal agents could legally kill a person for lawfully carrying a concealed firearm.

The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus called the shooting "deeply concerning" and stated: "Every peaceable Minnesotan has the right to keep and bear arms—including while attending protests, acting as observers, or exercising their First Amendment rights. These rights do not disappear when someone is lawfully armed."

Gun Owners of America called for a full and transparent investigation, stating: "The Second Amendment protects Americans' right to bear arms while protesting—a right the federal government must not infringe upon."

The Second Amendment Foundation stated: "The claim that some are now making—that the peaceable carry of a firearm near officers is enough to justify them using lethal force—is an affront to the Second Amendment rights of all Americans."

The National Rifle Association released a statement blaming Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and other politicians for "[inciting] violence against law enforcement," while separately criticizing statements by a federal prosecutor who suggested the shooting was legally justified.

Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, posted on X: "If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you." The NRA called his comments "dangerous and wrong."

In The Atlantic, writer Tyler Austin Harper argued: "Whether they lean right or left, are pro-immigration or have more restrictionist views, my fellow gun owners should understand the message that is being sent by this administration: If you exercise your constitutionally protected right to bear arms, masked federal agents can murder you in cold blood, simply because an American citizen exercising their Second Amendment rights scares them."

Political Response

Democratic Response: Governor Tim Walz called the shooting "sickening" and demanded the president "end this operation" and "pull the thousands of violent, untrained officers out of Minnesota." Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey asked: "How many more Americans need to die or get badly hurt for this operation to end?" Senator Chuck Schumer announced that Senate Democrats would vote to block a bipartisan spending package that would fund the Department of Homeland Security.

Republican Response: Hours after the shooting, Representative Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, formally requested that the heads of ICE, Customs and Border Patrol, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services testify at a full hearing.

Context: Minneapolis Homicides in 2026

Minneapolis Police Chief O'Hara noted that there had been only three homicides in Minneapolis in 2026 so far, and two of those—Renee Good and Alex Pretti—were carried out by federal immigration enforcement agents.

"The Minneapolis Police Department went the entire year last year recovering about 900 guns from the street, arresting hundreds and hundreds of violent offenders, and we didn't shoot anyone," O'Hara said.

A Widening Pattern of Enforcement Shootings

Subsequent reporting placed the Pretti killing within a broader national pattern of shootings by federal immigration agents—one in which official accounts have repeatedly been undermined by video evidence.

On July 7, 2026, an ICE agent shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican construction worker who had lived in the United States for roughly 35 years, during an early-morning traffic stop in a residential Houston neighborhood while he was driving three coworkers, including his brother, to a job site. The New York Times reported, and a DHS spokeswoman confirmed, that Salgado Araujo was not the intended target of the operation: agents were searching for two other people, one Guatemalan, and stopped his white van because "they observed a white van with an individual who resembled the target." ICE claimed Salgado Araujo "weaponized his vehicle" and tried to run over an agent, but the Times noted that no video or other evidence for that claim has emerged, and an attorney for the three passengers said that "at no point did they use the van to ram into the ICE agents and at no point were these ICE agents' lives ever in any danger." As in Minneapolis, independent verification is hampered by an evidence gap—the agents involved were not wearing body cameras—and, as with Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the FBI framed its investigation around an alleged assault on a federal officer rather than the agent's use of force. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum characterized the death as a homicide and human rights violation, and Mexico said it plans legal action.

In its Houston coverage, The New York Times reported that more than 20 people have been shot at by immigration agents since September 2025, nearly all of them in their cars, with some cases fatal. The Times observed that "in many immigration enforcement shootings, videos have later surfaced that contradict agents' accounts," explicitly citing the two fatal Minneapolis shootings—Good and Pretti—among those instances, along with a case in which video undermined an ICE agent's account and led to dropped charges against the man who was shot.

The Bulwark, in an opinion newsletter titled "ICE Is Shooting People Again" (July 8, 2026), likewise framed the Houston shooting as a continuation of the pattern that produced the Minneapolis killings of Good and Pretti, arguing that the same cycle—an aggressive stop, a disputed official justification of self-defense, and family and witness accounts contradicting it—was repeating months after Operation Metro Surge ended.