A preliminary report from federal investigators provided to members of Congress lays out the timeline of how Alex Pretti was killed by immigration enforcement agents — a deadly interaction that lasted less than five minutes.
A copy of the report, obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune on Jan. 27, says two officers — a Border Patrol agent and a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer — fired their guns during a chaotic scuffle that was also recorded from multiple angles by bystanders.
The report does not say whether bullets from both firearms hit Pretti. It also does not state how many times the agents fired their weapons.
The report is the first official accounting of the incident by U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Professional Responsibility, an internal investigative arm of the agency. It is based on body cameras and other documentation. According to the report:
- At 9 a.m. on Jan. 24, Border Patrol agents and Customs and Border Protection agents were on scene at Nicollet Avenue and 26th Street, where a crowd had formed and many people were blowing whistles.
- The agents encountered two women whom they told to move out of the street and onto the sidewalk, but they did not move.
- Agents pushed the women, “and one of the females ran to a male, later identified as 37-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti.”
- Agents then pepper-sprayed the woman and Pretti, and tried to detain Pretti, setting off a struggle.
- At this point, one Border Patrol agent started repeatedly shouting, “He’s got a gun!”
- Five seconds later, two agents discharged their service weapons. The report does not say which agent fired first, just that one was a Border Patrol agent and one was a CBP officer.
- One of those agents “subsequently cleared and secured Pretti’s firearm in his vehicle.”
- At 9:02 a.m., agents cut Pretti’s clothes and began administering medical aid. By 9:05 a.m., Minneapolis emergency medical personnel arrived and took over Pretti’s medical care.
- Pretti was put in an ambulance nine minutes later, and by 9:32 a.m., he had been declared dead at Hennepin County Medical Center.
Nowhere does the report say that Pretti reached for a firearm or intended to harm federal agents, a claim that has been made by officials including Border Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
The report also doesn’t address apparent attempts to render aid by a pediatrician who lives nearby, which came up in court documents this week.
In a statement after the report was publicized, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in Pretti’s “final moments he was doing what he does best — looking out for his neighbors.”
“We all saw the same video — and the rush to paint him as something he wasn’t was a blatant lie,” Frey said.
