Seven months after Alex Pretti was fatally shot by two Customs and Border Protection officers in Minneapolis, his parents and sister gave their first television interview this week, telling ABC News they still do not have full answers about his death or evidence that anyone has been held accountable. Susan Pretti, his mother, told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, “no one has given us the complete truth or anyone has been held accountable.”
The interview comes as the underlying federal investigations into the Jan. 24 shooting remain open, seven months after they began.
Background
Pretti, 37, a U.S. citizen and ICU nurse at a VA medical center, was shot by two officers during Operation Metro Surge, a large federal immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis. Bystander video showed Pretti recording officers on his phone when an officer pushed a woman toward him; he was then pepper-sprayed, pinned to the ground and disarmed of a handgun he was legally licensed to carry, before officers fired roughly ten shots.
In the hours afterward, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino said publicly that Pretti had brandished the weapon and intended to “massacre” officers, and other administration officials characterized him in similarly severe terms. A preliminary CBP internal report sent to Congress days later, and separately reviewed by NPR, did not repeat those claims. It describes an officer shouting that Pretti had a gun during a struggle, followed by gunfire about five seconds later, but does not say he brandished, reached for, or pointed it.
The two officers who fired were placed on administrative leave under standard CBP policy, and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division opened its own investigation. Neither review had been publicly concluded as of this writing, and this article could not verify the status of the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s autopsy findings. Separately, video surfaced in late January of Pretti in an altercation with a federal vehicle 11 days before the shooting, in which he spat toward an officer and kicked out a taillight. President Trump referenced that video in a Truth Social post calling Pretti “an agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist.”
What Different Sides Are Saying
The family rejects the administration’s initial characterization of Pretti and says accountability has not followed. Michael Pretti, his father, said officials put more effort into portraying his son negatively than into investigating what happened. Fact-check: the specific early claims the family disputes, that Pretti brandished a weapon and intended to attack officers, are not supported by the bystander video reviewed by multiple news organizations, nor by CBP’s own preliminary internal account.
The administration’s initial statements described Pretti as an armed, violent threat. DHS has said the officers’ leave placement is standard procedure that should not be read as suspicion of wrongdoing. Fact-check: that is accurate as a description of CBP policy, which places any agent on leave for three days after a use of deadly force regardless of fault, though it is a statement of the department’s own position rather than an independent finding.
On the Jan. 13 confrontation Trump cited, legal experts told Newsweek that whatever it shows, it would have no legal bearing on whether the Jan. 24 use of deadly force was justified, since it involved different officers 11 days apart. Fact-check: that is a legal assessment, not a settled fact, but it reflects how self-defense and use-of-force law generally treats separate, unconnected incidents.
Democracy Now reported this week that two CBP agents have been charged for use of force but not for the killing itself. This article could not independently confirm the nature of those charges, whether administrative or criminal, or what stage the Justice Department’s civil rights investigation has reached.
Note on Scope
Pretti’s death was one of several fatal shootings by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis during Operation Metro Surge, including the killing of Renee Good weeks earlier. Those cases involve separate, distinct investigations this article does not attempt to cover.
Related Links
- Family of Alex Pretti speaks out in exclusive interview: ‘They murdered our child’ – ABC News
- Internal review contradicts White House narrative of Pretti’s death – NPR
- Donald Trump brands Alex Pretti an ‘agitator’ after video of previous ICE clash – The Hill
- Alex Pretti’s Family Calls for Accountability Seven Months After His Killing – Democracy Now!
- Shooting deaths climb in Trump’s mass deportation effort – PBS News
- Trump Condemns Alex Pretti After Latest Video: ‘Crazed and Out of Control’ – Newsweek
Discussion Questions
- How do you think communities should respond when video evidence contradicts an official government account?
- Do you find CBP’s internal report or the administration’s initial public statements more consistent with the video evidence?
- What does accountability mean to you in a case like this, and has it happened here?
- Should officials publicly characterize a person’s intent or guilt before an investigation concludes?
- How does a seven-month wait for answers affect a family’s trust in government institutions?
- Should a person’s unrelated past conduct affect how the public judges a separate, later use-of-force incident?
- What role should independent investigators, rather than the agency involved, play in reviewing federal use-of-force incidents?
- Why do initial accounts of high-profile incidents like this so often change as more evidence emerges?
- What responsibility do public officials have when their early public statements turn out to be inaccurate?
- Imagine you are a member of Congress reviewing this case. What would you want investigators to answer first?
