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A makeshift memorial is placed Jan. 25, 2026, where Alex Pretti was fatally shot by a U.S. Border Patrol officer in Minneapolis. (AP)
Video footage of the fatal shooting of Minnesota resident Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers contradicts Trump administration officials’ statements about the event.
Since Pretti’s Jan. 24 killing in Minneapolis, the federal government has provided no evidence to substantiate early statements that he attacked law enforcement and shared no details about what happened before the confrontation and in the moments leading to Border Patrol officers shooting him.
Pretti, 37, was a U.S. citizen who worked as an Intensive Care Unit nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti was "brandishing" a handgun and "attacked" officers. Social media videos verified by multiple news organizations show Pretti, who had a concealed carry permit, holding a cell phone as he directed traffic and tried to help a woman pushed to the ground by an officer.
White House senior adviser Stephen Miller called Pretti a "domestic terrorist," the same term some Trump officials used to describe Renee Nicole Good, a Minneapolis woman killed Jan. 7 by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
Noem, Miller and Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino said that because Pretti was carrying a handgun and ammunition, he planned to assassinate law enforcement — statements that incensed some Republicans who support Second Amendment rights.
Bovino said, "This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement."
Noem and Bovino said Border Patrol agents were trying to arrest an immigrant illegally in the U.S. who has a criminal history. Minnesota’s Department of Corrections said the person had not been convicted of all the crimes Noem and Bovino described.
Pretti’s parents called their son a "kindhearted soul" and said Trump officials were not telling the truth. "The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting," their Jan. 25 statement said.
With many questions remaining unanswered, here’s how Trump administration officials’ explanations square with available information, as of mid-day Jan. 26.
Video does not show Pretti approaching agents with handgun
Noem said Pretti "approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun."
News outlets’ analysis of videos of the incident from several angles do not show Pretti approaching immigration officials while pointing a handgun.
Videos analyzed by The New York Times, CNN, NPR, ABC, Reuters and Bellingcat show Pretti holding a cellphone horizontally in his right hand.
In the footage, Pretti stands between an officer and two civilians. The officer disperses pepper spray at Pretti and the people standing behind him. A still image from bystander video shows Pretti holding up his left arm in reaction.
Several agents tackle Pretti to the ground. One officer appears to remove a gun from Pretti’s hip and walk across the street away from the group. Quickly after, another officer fires several shots at Pretti as he is restrained by agents.
Pretti had a permit to carry a concealed handgun in Minnesota, his family told The Associated Press.
"What the videos depict is that this guy did not walk up to anybody from (Customs and Border Protection) in a threatening manner," former acting DHS undersecretary for intelligence John Cohen told ABC News. "For (DHS) to construe that he arrived at that location with the intent to shoot those border patrol officers, there's nothing in the video evidence that we've seen thus far that would support that."
Officials also said Pretti was not carrying ID, which is required by Minnesota’s law for carrying a gun. Failing to show a permit and ID to law enforcement when asked is considered a petty misdemeanor and can result in a $25 fine. (Citations must be dismissed if the gun owner later produces evidence of an active permit, the law says.)
The Star Tribune reported that videos of the incident don’t show officers asking Pretti for his ID.
Trump administration officials called Pretti a ‘domestic terrorist’
Miller described Pretti as a "domestic terrorist" who "tried to assassinate federal law enforcement."
The FBI defines domestic terrorism as acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state criminal laws and appear intended to intimidate or coerce civilians; influence government policy by intimidation or coercion; or affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping.
In a press conference after the shooting, Noem said Pretti "came with weapons and ammunition to stop a law enforcement operation of federal law enforcement officers." She said Pretti "committed an act of domestic terrorism. That’s the facts."
"When you perpetuate violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and perpetuate violence, that is the definition of domestic terrorism," Noem said.
It’s the second time in a month that Noem said a person shot and killed by immigration officers was a domestic terrorist, before an investigation had taken place.
Legal experts questioned the characterization of Good as a domestic terrorist, telling PolitiFact the label was prejudicial and an attempt to malign her.
Shirin Sinnar, a Stanford Law School professor, told PolitiFact she has seen no evidence that Pretti "intended to, or used, violence against federal law enforcement officers."
"But we know for a fact that the Trump administration has embraced an expansive conception of domestic terrorism that targets protests and political dissent," Sinnar wrote by email Jan. 26.
Video doesn’t show Pretti ‘attacked’ officers
Noem, at the Jan. 24 press conference, said Pretti used his weapon to "assault law enforcement officers" and that he "impeded their law enforcement operations, attacked those officers."
Bovino said on CNN’s "State of the Union" that Pretti "was in the scene actively impeding and assaulting law enforcement."
Video of the incident does not show Pretti using his gun against law enforcement officers. Footage from early in the incident shows Pretti and several civilians standing in the middle of the street speaking to law enforcement officers. One of the officers pushes Pretti off the street toward the sidewalk.
It’s unclear what happened in the scrum before the shooting. When CNN anchor Dana Bash asked Bovino for evidence that Pretti was assaulting federal law enforcement, Bovino provided none.
"Dana, let's don't freeze-frame adjudicate this now," Bovino said. "He was there for a reason. And that reason was to impede law enforcement."
State disputes DHS comments about person targeted for arrest
Noem and Bovino said Border Patrol agents were trying to arrest Jose Huerta Chuma, who is in the country illegally.
Bovino said Jan. 24 that Huerta Chuma’s "criminal history includes domestic assault to intentionally inflict bodily harm, disorderly conduct and driving without a valid license."
The Minnesota Department of Corrections challenged Bovino’s description of the man’s criminal history in a Jan. 24 news release, saying department and court records show Huerta Chuma has no felony convictions.
A search of Minnesota’s court records shows two traffic-related petty misdemeanor convictions in 2021 for a person named Jose Huerta-Chuma. We asked the Department of Homeland Security for more information and have not heard back.
Chief Correspondent Louis Jacobson, Senior Correspondent Amy Sherman and PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 5:40 p.m. ET with additional statements and analysis.
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