Illegally shot dead? Alex Jeffrey Pretti id as 37-year-old Minneapolis shooting victim at hands of federal agents with Department of Homeland Security. At the time, victim had attempted to help female protester who was being sprayed with mace by agents only to then become swarmed himself. New video angles do not show victim handling gun or aiming gun at agents but simply trying to defend woman.
Federal law enforcement agents shot and killed a 37-year old white male, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a U.S citizen in Minneapolis and local resident on Saturday morning, raising questions whether he had been ‘legally’ shot dead, despite Department of Homeland of Security alleging that federal agents had feared for their lives.
Alex Jeffrey Pretti new video angle raises troubling questions
In the moments before Alex Pretti being shot, the 37-year-old was seen filming federal agents along the streets of Southern Minneapolis when Pretti sought to step in after agents began spraying a female protester with mace only to then himself become caught up in the unfolding scene, as other agents began to converge and now surround him.
Soon after a phalanx of federal agents descended on the man as they continued to engage Pretti. Video captures at least one officer strikes the 37-year-old with an object. An apparent gunshot is heard, and several more appear to follow. The agents scatter and Pretti falls to the ground.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Pretti a licensed nurse who worked at an emergency unit was shot multiple times in the chest. The chief said Alex Pretti was in legal possession of a gun, with a permit to carry. Two magazines were found on his body. At the time of the shooting, Pretti was recording ICE and defending a female protester as federal agents demanded she yield. At no point had Pretti taken out his legally acquired gun according to different video angles (supplied below).
Minnesota law allows permit holders to openly carry handguns in public without concealing them.
Alex Pretti family demand DHS stop lying about their son, ‘he was a hero!’
Was Alex Pretti, Minneapolis nurse ‘executed’ by federal agents?
The shooting occurred just after 9 a.m, Saturday morning, near the intersection of 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue, officials said, near a Glam Doll Donuts location. Dozens of protesters at the site blew whistles and angrily demanded that police officers arrest the federal agents. In response, law enforcement officials deployed tear gas and flash bangs to try to disperse the crowd, the nytimes reported.
The Department of Homeland Security gave its account of the shooting, saying that it started with ‘a targeted operation’ involving ICE agents seeking a person in the country illegally and wanted for assault. While that was going on, the department said someone approached Border Patrol agents ‘with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun,’ (see below) and that agents tried to disarm him, leading to ‘an armed struggle.’ They said an agent was in fear for his life and fired shots. The person, Pretti, 37, was pronounced dead at the scene.
A regard of videos shared on social media (see immediately below) from two different angles does not appear to show Alex Pretti handling the handgun or at any point drawing the gun at agents. At all times video appears to show that the gun was in the holster by the side of Pretti’s hip. Commentators on the web even stated the man’s gun being taken away from him before he was shot.
alex pretti clear and slow motion video , end of debate. https://t.co/xlOLO3AJlt
— Gurpreet Garry Walia (@garrywalia_) January 25, 2026
Minneapolis police officers were dispatched to the scene and as of around 11:20 a.m., they were working to keep a growing crowd separated from federal agents as tensions escalated. More than 100 people have gathered in the area as word of the shooting spreads, with protesters yelling at agents and blocking streets
The shooting came a day after thousands of people protested against Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, and hundreds of businesses shut down in solidarity. This would be the third shooting involving federal law enforcement agents in Minneapolis this month, including the killing of Renee Nicole Good, 37, on Jan. 7.
