Two federal officers involved in the Jan. 24 fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti during a federal immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis have been placed on paid administrative leave.
Administrative leave is standard in officer-involved shootings pending investigation. The agents have been removed from active duty in the Minneapolis area, according to Fox News:
Video footage appeared to show him attempting to help a woman knocked down by agents, when he was sprayed with an irritant, pushed to the ground and beaten.
The footage showed an agent pulling Pretti’s suspected gun, a 9 mm pistol, from his waistband before other agents fired nearly a dozen shots in his direction.
One Border Patrol agent fired his CBP-issued Glock 19, and a second officer fired his CBP-issued Glock 47.
Before the shooting, agents were conducting operations as civilians in the area were yelling and blowing whistles, officials said. Authorities told the civilians to stay on the sidewalk to prevent them from impeding law enforcement actions.
Officials said Pretti resisted as authorities attempted to take him into custody
The revelation comes amid growing controversy over the shooting. A majority of voters (58%) now believe federal immigration agents have “gone too far” in their recent crackdown efforts.
As ABC News reports on last Saturday’s initially nonviolent encounter:
The interaction that ended in the death of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday morning began at least three minutes earlier when Pretti appeared to be using his phone to record CBP officers, according to videos reviewed and verified by ABC News.
Minutes later, Pretti was pinned on the street by multiple federal agents — visibly being hit by one of them — when one of the officers can be seen leaving the struggle with what appears to be a gun.
Those videos appear to contradict, at least in part, claims by federal officials that Pretti “approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun” and “attacked” officers carrying out immigration duties.
During a news conference Saturday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti “arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.”
However, on Tuesday, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller acknowledged that federal immigration agents involved in the fatal shooting “may not have been following” official operational protocol at the time — a stunning reversal from earlier statements defending the federal response and describing Pretti as a “would-be assassin.”
Miller told CNN that the White House had instructed the Department of Homeland Security that extra personnel sent to Minnesota were to be used for force protection, creating a physical barrier between arrest teams and protesters. “We are evaluating why the CBP team may not have been following that protocol,” he said.
The fatal shootings of Pretti and Renee Good continue to spark widespread protests and scrutiny of federal immigration enforcement tactics in Minnesota and beyond, intensifying debate over the use of force and oversight amid allegations of officer misconduct.
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ICE is dealing with riots not protesters so if you come at an ICE agent you deserve what happens.
ail violent protesters should be prosecuted , Prtti had a gun, I wasn’t there and just don’t know