Trump administration is blatantly lying about the murder of Alex Pretti by federal agents

Lies, lies, and more lies. We’re all accustomed to being subjected to this by Trump and his cronies. They hate truth. They love lies. But when they lie about the murder of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by federal agents, this is especially despicable, because those lies attack the honor of a wonderful man who did absolutely nothing to deserve being shot ten times.

Pretti’s parents are appropriately outraged.

In “The Trump Administration is Lying to Our Faces. Congress Must Act,” the New York Times editorial board describes some of the lies being spread by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino.

The federal government owes Americans a thorough investigation and a truthful accounting of the Saturday morning shooting of Alex Jeffrey Pretti on a Minneapolis street. When the government kills, it has an obligation to demonstrate that it has acted in the public interest. Instead, the Trump administration is once again engaged in a perversion of justice.

Mere hours after Mr. Pretti died, Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, declared without offering evidence that Mr. Pretti had “committed an act of domestic terrorism.” Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol official, offered his own assessment: “This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”

These unfounded and inflammatory judgments pre-empt the outcome of an investigation, which the Department of Homeland Security has promised. They also appear wholly inconsistent with several videos recorded at the scene.

Those videos showed that Mr. Pretti had nothing but a phone in his hands when he was tackled by Border Patrol agents, and that he never drew the gun he was carrying (and reportedly had a license to carry). Indeed, the videos seem to show that one federal agent took the gun from Mr. Pretti moments before a different agent shot him from behind. Separate analyses by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, CBS News and other organizations all concluded that the videos contradict the Trump administration’s description of the killing.

Check out the excellent New York Times timeline analysis of what happened after Pretti tried to help a woman who had been pushed to the ground by federal agents. Below I’ve shared the narrative. Video evidence is included in “Timeline: A Moment by Moment Look at the Shooting of Alex Pretti.”

48 Seconds Before Shooting: Videos show a small group of civilians standing in the middle of a street where a person was detained on the ground; the civilians are speaking to federal agents. Mr. Pretti appears to be filming the scene, and he walks closer to the federal agents while holding his phone. Then an agent shoves two civilians from one side of the street to the other, pushing them toward a white S.U.V.

28 Seconds Before Shooting: For a second time, the agent pushes the civilian with the orange backpack. The civilian falls to the ground near the white S.U.V.

25 Seconds Before Shooting: Mr. Pretti tries to put himself between the D.H.S. agent and the two civilians. Footage shows the same agent squirting pepper spray in the direction of Mr. Pretti’s face. (This agent will later fire shots at Mr. Pretti.) Mr. Pretti is holding his phone in one hand, and he holds his other hand up to shield himself from the spray.

23 Seconds Before Shooting: Mr. Pretti appears to be trying to help the civilian with the orange backpack stand back up as the agent continues to pepper-spray the group.

17 Seconds Before Shooting: Several agents grab Mr. Pretti, who is still holding his phone. Additional agents approach and try to pin Mr. Pretti to the ground.

11 Seconds Before Shooting: Mr. Pretti is surrounded by a group of seven agents, some of whom have wrestled him to the ground. One of the agents, who wears a gray coat, gets closer to Mr. Pretti. The agent’s hands are empty as he reaches for Mr. Pretti, while the other agents hold Mr. Pretti down on his knees. At the same time, another agent strikes Mr. Pretti repeatedly with a pepper spray canister.

1 Second Before Shooting: An eighth agent joins the group. The agent in the gray coat appears to pull a gun from near Mr. Pretti’s right hip. The agent then begins to move away from the skirmish with the weapon. At the same time, another agent unholsters his firearm and points it at Mr. Pretti’s back.

First Shot Fired: The agent in the gray coat removes the weapon from the scene. It matches the profile of a gun that D.H.S. says belonged to Mr. Pretti. Then, while Mr. Pretti is on his knees and restrained, the agent standing directly above him appears to fire one shot at Mr. Pretti at close range. He immediately fires three additional shots.

Additional Shots Fired: Several agents have moved away from Mr. Pretti, who has collapsed. Another agent — the same one who shoved the civilians into the street and pepper-sprayed Mr. Pretti — unholsters his gun and fires at Mr. Pretti. The first agent also fires additional shots. Together, they fire six more shots at Mr. Pretti while he lies motionless on the ground. At least 10 shots appear to have been fired within five seconds. By the moment of the 10th shot, the agent who moved away with the weapon has crossed the street.

Pretti was a licensed gun owner with a concealed carry permit. Minnesota law says bringing a gun to a protest is perfectly legal. Right-wing gun owners have done this many times. Pretti never brandished his gun. So the federal agents who murdered Pretti need to be investigated, indicted, and sent away to jail for a very long time. Here’s some tweets on X about the shooting. Daniel Dale is the CNN fact-checker.