Shortly after Border Patrol agents shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street on Saturday, federal officials denounced Pretti as a “domestic terrorist,” claiming he was attempting to gun down immigration officers. That narrative quickly unraveled when bystanders’ cell phone footage that contradicted the Trump administration’s statements spread across social media.
The fatal shooting of Pretti was not the first time that federal immigration officers have killed civilians under the Trump administration, and it wasn’t the first time that officials spread misleading accounts about the shooting victim.
Federal immigration officers have shot and killed at least four other people in recent months, The Marshall Project found. In September, agents shot Silverio Villegas González, a father originally from Mexico who worked as a cook, in a Chicago suburb while reportedly trying to flee, according to a report by WBEZ. In December, in Rio Grande City, Texas, a border patrol agent killed a 31-year-old Mexican citizen while trying to detain him. On New Year's Eve, an off-duty ICE agent shot Keith Porter, a Black father in Los Angeles, California, according to CBS News. Authorities said Porter, a U.S. citizen, had raised a rifle at the officer, which his family disputes. And in early January, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good, a White woman and also a U.S. citizen, in her car in Minneapolis.
After shooting both Good and Pretti, officers did not perform CPR or any other medical aid, and when physicians at the scene attempted to help, federal agents either delayed or stopped them from doing so. According to AMP reports, immigration officers did not call 911 for three minutes after an agent shot Good and would not let a man who identified himself as a doctor help her. In Pretti’s case, a licensed pediatrician said she ran to the scene after witnessing the shooting from her apartment window, according to a court document filed Saturday. She said agents would not let her through at first, but she insisted, because no one was helping Pretti. She said instead of performing CPR, officers appeared to be counting his bullet holes.
Federal agents have also shot at other people as part of the nationwide immigration dragnet. The Trace, a nonprofit news organization that focuses on U.S. gun violence, counted 19 times officers opened fire. In eight cases, the victims were injured but survived. On Jan. 14, an ICE officer shot a man in Minneapolis in the leg. In October, a Border Patrol agent shot a Chicago woman multiple times. The officer who shot her appeared to brag about it in a text message, later presented in court evidence. The message reportedly read, “I fired 5 rounds, and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys.” That shooting happened as part of Operation Midway Blitz, an immigration enforcement campaign in which federal agents fanned across Chicago. The administration has also conducted large-scale blitzes in Los Angeles, Portland and New Orleans.
According to The New York Times, in the last four months, federal officers have fired on at least nine people who were in their vehicles, like Good. In those cases, authorities said the drivers were attempting to use the vehicles to strike an officer. In the shooting of Good, Department of Homeland Security officials said she had attempted to run over officers in “an act of domestic terrorism.” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz quickly disputed the federal description of the incident after viewing a video of the shooting.
In addition to shootings, federal immigration officers have pointed their guns at activists and bystanders. Illinois State Rep. Hoan Huynh said agents blocked his car and pointed a gun at him while he was trying to alert community members about the presence of immigration officers and inform them of their rights, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The Department of Homeland Security has routinely defended the shootings as necessary to protect officer safety. However, video and witnesses have disputed their accounts in many cases. After federal immigration agents fatally shot González — the cook in Chicago — during a traffic stop, Homeland Security claimed an officer was seriously injured. Body camera video, however, captured the agent saying it was “nothing major,” according to footage obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.
A lawyer for Marimar Martinez, the woman shot five times in Chicago, said bodycam video contradicts the government's account that she drove towards officers before they shot her, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Assault charges against Martinez were dropped.
At a news conference on Sunday, Walz called on President Donald Trump to withdraw ICE and Border Patrol agents from Minnesota, and he lambasted federal officials for pushing falsehoods about Pretti in the immediate aftermath of his death. “Besmirching a VA nurse and a son and a coworker and a friend is despicable beyond all description,” Walz said.