It happened two weeks ago with the death of Renée Goods, a 38-year-old woman in her car, and it has happened again now, with the death also at the hands of federal agents of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse in the middle of the street. Although the videos, taken by numerous witnesses from all imaginable angles, show one thing, the Government maintains the opposite.
A narrative written from Washington, indifferent to the facts, that aims to rewrite the story of what happened in Minneapolis and in general about the protests against the deployment of thousands of immigration agents without the necessary experience, training, and protocols. "This seems like a situation where an individual wanted to cause maximum harm and massacre law enforcement officers," they claim without any evidence and against what the images show.
On Saturday morning, Pretti was protesting in the south of Minneapolis against an ICE raid, the main agency responsible for detaining 3,000 people a day in the US for deportation, which targeted a young Ecuadorian. The nurse, in the middle of the road, was recording a video and trying to obstruct the agents' cars. Everything happened very quickly.
He and two other people confronted the police, they responded with pushes and knocked down a woman. Pretti intervened, with his back to the agents and without threatening them, assaulting them, or doing anything violent. They were sprayed with pepper spray. And within seconds, he was on the ground, surrounded by half a dozen agents, who opened fire without any logical explanation. Up to 10 shots, most when he was already motionless.
The scenes show how in the midst of the chaos, an agent comes out with a gun in hand. The Department of Homeland Security quickly showed an image of the weapon, and of two extra magazines that Pretti had on him. And they constructed a narrative: an armed man threatened the agents who had to defend themselves.
The problem is that none of that is seen in the videos. Pretti had a permit for the weapon he had on him and did not break any laws regarding it. He carried it in a holster on his waist and at no point did he try to grab it, let alone use it. He attended peaceful protests, helped a woman, and 30 seconds later he was lifeless. The Government, however, clings to the same story from the first minute, without conducting any investigation or self-criticism. They do not claim it was a mistake, a misunderstanding, or a tragic accident. Instead, they state that Pretti was a "domestic terrorist" who intended to cause "a massacre among the agents."
Flowers at the spot where ICE agents killed Alex Pretti.AFP
They said this an hour after the incident, when not all the videos were even known. But they maintain it hours later. "A killer tried to murder federal agents and this is their response," wrote Stephen Miller on his social media, one of President Trump's most powerful advisors, criticizing Congress voices calling to cut ICE funding. "An aspiring killer tried to murder a law enforcement agent and the Democratic official version is on the side of the terrorists," he insisted, linking a video clearly showing the sequence of events. "A national terrorist tried to murder a federal law enforcement agent, and this is their response? You and the entire Democratic leadership team of the state have been fanning the flames of insurrection with the sole purpose of stopping the deportation of illegal immigrants who invaded the country," he added in a third message, referring, not by chance, to insurrection, after Trump warned that he is considering applying the Anti-Insurrection laws from the early 19th century to deploy troops in Minnesota and end the protests.
Miller was by no means the only one. Vice President JD Vance joined those theories and blamed the protesters. "This level of artificial chaos is exclusive to Minneapolis. It is a direct consequence of extreme left-wing agitators, in collaboration with local authorities."
Even more serious has been the stance of the top officials of the agents. Gregory Bovino, the head of the border forces on the ground, and Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security. Both appeared, when the complete images and the step-by-step sequence were already known, including the minutes before the physical contact. And they denied what hundreds of millions of people have seen worldwide.
"During the operation, an individual approached US Border Patrol agents with a 9mm semi-automatic pistol. The agents tried to disarm the suspect, but he, armed, violently resisted. Fearing for their lives and those of their colleagues, an agent fired to defend themselves. This violence is directly fueled by the hate rhetoric of Minnesota sanctuary politicians. It must end now," said Noem.
"When violence is perpetrated against a government for ideological reasons and with the aim of resisting and perpetuating violence, that is the definition of domestic terrorism," Noem said during a press conference at FEMA headquarters in Washington. "This individual who arrived with weapons and ammunition to prevent a police operation by federal agents committed an act of domestic terrorism. Those are the facts."
Bovino repeated the same story, also later in both TV appearances. They play with words on one side. Pretti, the deceased, did indeed have a weapon, but at no point did he try to touch it. In fact, when everything happened, the agents had no idea he was armed. The shots, moreover, occurred when the man had already been disarmed. Still, sympathetic TV networks and many conservative media outlets echoed the administration members' testimonies, repeating the idea of a "domestic terrorist."