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A makeshift memorial is placed Jan. 25, 2026, where Alex Pretti was fatally shot by a U.S. Border Patrol officer in Minneapolis. (AP)
Video footage of the fatal shooting of Minnesota resident Alex Pretti by a federal immigration officer contradicts Trump administration officials’ claims about the event.
Since Pretti’s Jan. 24 killing in Minneapolis, the federal government has provided no evidence to substantiate early statements and shared no details about what happened before the confrontation and in the moments leading to a Border Patrol officer firing his gun.
Pretti, 37, was a U.S. citizen who worked as an Intensive Care Unit nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti was "brandishing" a handgun and "attacked" officers. Social media videos verified by multiple news organizations show Pretti, who had a concealed carry permit, holding a cell phone as he directed traffic and tried to help a woman pushed to the ground by an officer.
White House senior adviser Stephen Miller called Pretti a "domestic terrorist," the same term some Trump officials used to describe Renee Nicole Good, a Minneapolis woman killed Jan. 7 by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
Noem, Miller and Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino said that because Pretti was carrying a handgun and ammunition, he planned to assassinate law enforcement — statements that incensed some Republicans who support Second Amendment rights.
"The suspect put himself in that situation," Bovino said. "The victims are the Border Patrol agents there."
Pretti’s parents called their son a "kindhearted soul" and said Trump officials were not telling the truth. "The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting," their Jan. 25 press statement said.
With many questions remaining unanswered, here’s how Trump administration officials’ explanations conflict with available information.
Video does not show Pretti approaching immigration agents with handgun
Noem said Pretti "approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun."
Bovino said, "This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement."
News outlets’ analysis of videos of the incident from several angles do not show Pretti approaching immigration officials with a handgun.
Videos analyzed by The New York Times, CNN, NPR, ABC, Reuters and Bellingcat show Pretti holding a cellphone horizontally in his right hand.
In the footage, Pretti stands between an officer and two civilians. The officer disperses pepper spray at Pretti and the people standing behind him. A still image from bystander video shows Pretti holding up his left arm in reaction.
Several agents tackle Pretti to the ground. One officer appears to remove a gun from Pretti’s hip and walk across the street away from the group. Quickly after another officer fires several shots at Pretti as he is restrained by agents.
"What the videos depict is that this guy did not walk up to anybody from (Customs and Border Protection) in a threatening manner," former acting DHS undersecretary for intelligence John Cohen told ABC News. "For (DHS) to construe that he arrived at that location with the intent to shoot those border patrol officers, there's nothing in the video evidence that we've seen thus far that would support that."
CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan asked Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara if he had seen any evidence that Pretti was "brandishing" a gun, as Noem said.
"You have a Second Amendment right in the United States to possess a firearm. And there are some restrictions around that in Minnesota," O’Hara said Jan. 25 on "Face the Nation." "And everything that we see that we are aware of shows that he did not violate any of those restrictions."
Trump administration officials called Pretti a ‘domestic terrorist’
Miller described Pretti as a "domestic terrorist" who "tried to assassinate federal law enforcement."
In a press conference after the shooting, Noem said Pretti "came with weapons and ammunition to stop a law enforcement operation of federal law enforcement officers." She said Pretti "committed an act of domestic terrorism. That’s the facts."
"When you perpetuate violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and perpetuate violence, that is the definition of domestic terrorism," Noem said.
It’s the second time in a month that Noem said a person shot and killed by immigration officers was a domestic terrorist, before any investigation had taken place.
The FBI defines domestic terrorism as acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state criminal laws and appear intended to intimidate or coerce civilians; influence government policy by intimidation or coercion; or affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping.
Legal experts questioned the characterization of Good as a domestic terrorist, telling PolitiFact the label was prejudicial and an attempt to malign her.
Editor’s note: This story will be updated with additional statements and analysis. Check back later Jan. 26.
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