Editorial Board

Editorial | Who shot Alex Pretti? Federal officials won’t say.

Accountability and trust cannot be restored through secrecy.

By Editorial Board

The Minnesota Star Tribune

January 28, 2026 at 10:06PM

A growing memorial marks the site where federal agents killed Alex Pretti on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis on Jan. 24. (Carlos Gonzalez/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Opinion editor’s note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Minnesota Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

•••

Not even the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension knows the names of the federal immigration agents who wrestled Alex Pretti to the ground and fired 10 times at him on Jan. 24.

The Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security have so far refused to cooperate with state investigators and release evidence crucial to understanding the timeline of events and circumstances leading up to the slaying of the 37-year-old Minnesota resident.

That is unacceptable.

Pretti, a nurse and U.S. citizen, died from his wounds on a cold Minneapolis street. Because the agents wore masks as part of their uniform, neither he nor horrified onlookers saw the faces of those who killed him.

That horrifying anonymity represents an equally unacceptable form of masking as Minnesota continues to demand answers about who took Pretti’s life. The agents’ faces aren’t just hidden behind balaclavas. So are their identities, even from Minnesota law enforcement, as federal officials keep secret the names of those involved in the fatal shooting, including the two agents who fired their weapons.

Complete transparency is now the minimum required to restore legitimacy. The public deserves to know who killed Pretti. And while some may question a call for the release of the officers’ names as an invitation to harassment, it’s the inverse. The public deserves to know if and how the officers are being held accountable if they engaged in unprofessional or reckless behavior in Pretti’s death. Trust cannot be rebuilt in the dark.

The agents’ names are among that essential information for the BCA, with their background, training and previous disciplinary incidents essential to understanding how this happened. Yet this reasonable request has been rebuffed, a disturbing detail that speaks volumes about federal officials’ lack of cooperation and outright disrespect for state law enforcement during Operation Metro Surge. The BCA has a compelling interest in investigating the fatal shooting of a citizen in its jurisdiction.

There’s a clear and alarming pattern developing of federal officials not only blocking state law enforcement’s investigations after fatal immigration agent encounters here but blaming Minnesotans for their own deaths at the hands of ICE agents.

The first death was Renee Good, 37, a Minneapolis mom killed Jan. 7 when a federal agent fired fatal shots into her Honda Pilot. While we at least know the name of the agent who shot Good, the U.S. Department of Justice has announced it has no plans to to open a civil rights investigation into her death even as widely circulated video undercut officials’ claims that the agent acted in self-defense.

Related Coverage

The Minnesota Star Tribune Editorial Board has previously called out the DOJ for its inaction, as well as sounded the alarm about the feds’ lack of cooperation with state law enforcement agencies.

Regrettably, nothing changed when a second Minnesotan died.

Federal officials’ unwillingness to release body-cam video from an agent, or agents, at the scene of Pretti’s death further undermines confidence into the feds’ alleged probe.

In striking contrast, the immigration agent who shot Good in early January had video recorded on his smartphone. The video was shared swiftly with the public after her death, with some claiming dubiously that it offered proof that she tried to run over the agent.

The Good video’s rapid release demonstrates that federal officials are willing to make this public even as an investigation is underway. So where is the footage from the agents involved in Pretti’s slaying?

“The night and day difference between reaction speed is pretty telling. Why then and not now?” said Justin Nix, a distinguished professor in the University of Nebraska Omaha’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump said that “we’re going to de-escalate a little bit” in Minneapolis. The president’s phone conversations with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Jan. 26 are hopeful steps that Trump realizes change is needed.

Another encouraging sign: The departure from Minnesota this week of Border Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino. In the early hours after Pretti’s death, Bovino appallingly said that immigration agents were the real victims of the fatal shooting. He also asserted without sharing evidence that Pretti intended to “massacre” law enforcement.

Time will tell if having border czar Tom Homan here is an improvement. The Minnesota Star Tribune has reported that Homan was expected to take over on Jan. 27, with the intent to reset after Bovino’s disastrous leadership. Homan can start rebuilding trust in the nation’s immigration enforcement by taking these early steps to demonstrate that a reset is truly underway in Minnesota:

Work fully with state law enforcement’s efforts to investigate Pretti’s death, starting with turning over the agents’ names and evidence to the BCA. The public also has a right to know who these agents are and how the slaying is adjudicated.
Order immigration agents to remove their masks. Banana republics have secret police; the U.S. should not.

If federal officials truly want to de-escalate in Minnesota and rebuild confidence in their mission, they must stop shielding their agents and the consequences of their actions from the public they serve.

Justice demands that we know who killed Alex.