Alex Pretti clashed at least twice with federal agents before one officer gunned him down, marking the second fatal shooting of a protestor in Minnesota this month.
A Border Patrol agent shot the 37-year-old intensive care nurse during a scuffle at an a January 24 rally against Donald Trump‘s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
It followed the fatal shooting of mother-of-three Renee Nicole Good by ICE agent Jonathan ‘Jon’ Ross in the same city on January 7.
In the weeks before the deadly shooting, Pretti had violent skirmishes with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on at least two occasions.
January 13
One clash came on January 13 when Pretti was shown on camera daring ICE agents who were carrying pepper spray to ‘soak me, motherf***er’.
The video shows Pretti shouting ‘f*** you!’ at the agents, before yelling: ‘What the f*** is wrong with you? Every decision you’ve made in your life is f***ing wrong!’
He also referred to one of the agents as a ‘pepper spray b****’ and ‘f***ing trash’ as the officers climbed into their SUVs to leave the premises.
Alex Pretti, 37, was shot dead by US Border Patrol Tactical Unit agents in Minneapolis
One clash came on January 13 when Pretti was shown on camera daring ICE agents who were carrying pepper spray to ‘soak me, motherf***er’, as shown in the photograph above
Pretti then yelled: ‘F***ing soak me, motherf***er!’ before kicking the back of the car.
The sound of shattered plastic could then be heard in the footage as the SUV turned away and the damaged taillight came into view.
An agent leaped from the back door as Pretti held up a middle finger and yelled ‘f*** you.’
Multiple agents then converged on Pretti and attacked him as shocked bystanders screamed in the background.
Surrounding officers then fired tear gas and pepper balls into the crowd while agents released Pretti from their grip and set him free.
Shortly after, the agents begin to disperse. Pretti, who appeared to have a gun in his waistband as he did the day of the shooting, picked up his belongings which had come loose amid the scuffle and walked away.
The Daily Mail spoke to Max Shapiro, a Minneapolis tax attorney who filmed the original clip, about what he saw that day.
Shapiro’s son attends daycare not far from where he filmed and participates in a group Signal chat of parents who have been ‘patrolling the corners near the entrances’ for ICE agents.
After he dropped off his son and went to work, a member of the group chat said ICE had arrived a block from his son’s daycare.
A different angle is shown of Alex Pretti’s January 13 confrontation with ICE agents, filmed just 11 days before his death
Renee Nicole Good, 37, (pictured) was shot three times in the face on January 7 by an ICE agent
‘I ended up going to observe and as I got there, got there right at the moment where Mr Pretti was being confronted and assaulted by some ICE individuals,’ Shapiro said.
Shapiro, who said he had never met Pretti before, began filming on his phone just after the nurse kicked out the taillight in a crowd of about 15 people.
He claimed that everything had been ‘orderly and calm’ for the majority of his time observing, until they began to pack up and leave, and Pretti kicked the SUV.
January 17
Just four days after this furious clash, Pretti suffered a broken rib after a group of officers tackled him to the ground during another protest, a source told CNN.
The alleged assault occurred when Pretti stopped his car after seeing ICE officers chasing a family on foot, the insider said.
Pretti allegedly began shouting and blowing a whistle, and was then tackled to the ground by five agents. The source claimed one officer leaned on his back, causing his ribs to break.
The ICU nurse, who allegedly ‘thought he was going to die’, was reportedly released at the scene – but allegedly remained on federal agents’ radar.
Agents deployed in Minneapolis were instructed earlier this month to ‘capture all images, license plates, identifications, and general information on hotels, agitators, protestors,’ according to documents obtained by the outlet.
Federal officers are understood to have kept documented details about Pretti, although it is unclear when they first started collecting information on him.
January 24
One week later, Pretti was dead.
Multiple bystander videos show a Border Patrol agent shooting and killing Pretti after a roughly 30-second scuffle around 9am Saturday.
Videos show a Border Patrol agent shooting and killing Pretti after a roughly 30-second scuffle around 9am Saturday. His final moments were captured in the photograph above
The videos appear to contradict statements by DHS, which said the shots were fired ‘defensively’ against Pretti as he ‘approached’ them with a gun.
In the videos, Pretti is seen with only a phone in his hand. None of the footage appears to show him with a weapon.
During the scuffle, agents discovered that he was carrying a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun, and they opened fire with several shots.
A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order banning the Trump administration from ‘destroying or altering evidence’ related to the death of Pretti.
It has not been confirmed whether Pretti’s gun fired any shots.
Department of Homeland Security boss Kristi Noem was quick to label Pretti a domestic terrorist, a title that Trump himself has not said.
Trump then tapped Border Czar Tom Homan to take over the Minnesota operation from Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino.
