Before federal agents fired nearly a dozen bullets into a Minneapolis ICU nurse recording an immigration operation, another video had already been recorded. It showed the same man on a different winter night, shouting at federal officers, spitting toward them, and kicking out a taillight on a government SUV, then walking away with what appears to be a gun in his waistband.
That earlier footage now sits beside the fatal shooting in the public record. It raises a narrow but important question. Does what happened more than a week before help explain why Alex Pretti died, or does it risk being used to retroactively justify a killing his family calls unlawful?
Who Was Involved and What Is Known
The person in both encounters is identified by his family as Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse who worked for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Minneapolis, according to reporting by Fox News and prior coverage of his death by the same outlet. The Department of Veterans Affairs, which oversees veterans’ health care, confirms that VA hospitals employ ICU nurses like Pretti across the country, although it has not publicly commented on this specific case on its main site, va.gov, at the time of this writing.
In the fatal incident, Pretti was shot and killed by agents of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a component of the Department of Homeland Security that carries out border and immigration enforcement operations inside the United States. Fox News reports that the agents involved were Border Patrol officers participating in immigration enforcement in Minneapolis when they encountered Pretti, who had been filming their activities in the street.
The newly released video that precedes the shooting was published by The News Movement and described in detail by Fox News. Pretti’s family told the Minneapolis Star Tribune, as cited by Fox News, that the man in that earlier video is Alex Pretti.
The Earlier Confrontation Caught on Video
According to Fox News, The News Movement released a video that was reportedly recorded in mid-January. The footage, as described in that reporting, shows a man who resembles Pretti, with a beard, glasses, and clothing similar to what he wore on the night he was later killed.
Video appears to show Alex Pretti spit at federal agents, violently damage SUV days before fatal CBP shooting https://t.co/yqjM6dXceF pic.twitter.com/vEulXFhHR6
— Don Lee (@don1lee) January 29, 2026
In the video, the man shouts at federal agents seated in a government SUV, spits toward them, and kicks the vehicle’s taillight, which breaks. Fox News reports that he yells an obscenity multiple times and raises both middle fingers. At that point, agents exit the vehicle, approach him, and take him to the ground.
During the scuffle, agents deploy “pepper balls and tear gas toward a nearby crowd” of demonstrators, according to Fox’s description of the video. Despite the clash, the man is ultimately released rather than arrested.
After he steps away from the officers, the video shows what appears to be a firearm in his waistband. He remains in the area with other demonstrators, who continue yelling at federal officers, instead of leaving, Fox reports.
There is no indication in Fox’s account that officers in that earlier encounter seized the apparent weapon or arrested the man on charges such as assault on a federal officer or destruction of government property. The outlet does not report whether any federal agency has explained why he was released at the scene.
What Happened the Night Pretti Was Killed
Roughly a week after that first recorded encounter, Pretti was again near federal immigration enforcement activity in Minneapolis, this time while recording on his phone, according to Fox News and its prior coverage of the shooting here.
On that night, Fox reports, Border Patrol agents were conducting enforcement operations as civilians shouted and blew whistles. Authorities told Fox that members of the public had been instructed to stay on the sidewalk so they would not interfere with law enforcement activity.
Video from the fatal shooting, as described by Fox News, appears to show Pretti moving toward a woman who had been knocked to the ground by agents. Fox says the footage shows Pretti attempting to help her before officers spray him with a chemical irritant, force him to the pavement, and strike him.
In the same footage, one agent can be seen removing what authorities later described as a suspected firearm, specifically a 9 mm pistol, from Pretti’s waistband while other agents fire nearly a dozen rounds, Fox reports. The outlet attributes to officials the detail that one Border Patrol agent fired a CBP-issued Glock 19 and another fired a CBP-issued Glock 47.
During the struggle before the shots, an unidentified Border Patrol agent is heard repeatedly shouting that the man is armed, according to Fox’s account of the video. Authorities told the outlet that Pretti resisted when agents tried to take him into custody, and that the confrontation escalated into a physical struggle that ended when he was shot.
At the time of Fox News’ reporting, officials had not released a full investigative report into the shooting to the public. CBP’s public materials state that uses of deadly force typically trigger internal reviews and can be examined by the Department of Homeland Security’s oversight offices and, in some cases, the Department of Justice. No such findings related to Pretti had been posted on those public sites as of this writing.
The Family’s Account and the Language of Justification
Pretti’s relatives have not disputed that he is the person seen confronting officers in the earlier video. They strongly reject the idea that the prior incident has any bearing on whether agents acted lawfully when they killed him days later.
Attorney Steve Schleicher, who represents the Pretti family, told Fox News, “A week before Alex was gunned down in the street – despite posing no threat to anyone – he was violently assaulted by a group of ICE agents. Nothing that happened a full week before could possibly have justified Alex’s killing at the hands of ICE on Jan. 24.”
That statement captures several points of contention.
First, Schleicher characterizes the earlier encounter not as an arrest or appropriate use of force but as a “violent[] assault[] by a group of ICE agents.” Fox News, in its description of the video, notes that the man is taken to the ground and that chemical agents are deployed into the surrounding crowd. There is no indication in Fox’s account that any independent body has yet determined whether the tactics used in that earlier incident complied with federal policy.
Second, the lawyer refers to both incidents as involving “ICE agents,” while Fox’s reporting on the shooting itself attributes the fatal gunfire to Border Patrol agents, who are part of CBP, rather than U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The article does not clarify whether multiple federal agencies were operating together or whether there may be confusion in public descriptions. Neither CBP nor ICE is quoted directly in the Fox coverage addressing that distinction.
Finally, Schleicher’s statement goes directly to the question of justification. He argues that conduct from more than a week earlier should play no role in assessing whether the later use of deadly force was lawful or necessary. Federal officials quoted by Fox News, by contrast, focus on the moments of physical struggle on the night of the shooting and the fact that agents say Pretti was armed.
Court Orders and Evidence Preservation
A separate Fox News report notes that a judge issued an order blocking the Trump administration from “destroying or altering” evidence connected to the Minneapolis shooting, foxnews.com. That order suggests that litigation or formal legal challenges to the shooting were already underway or anticipated, and that courts had moved to ensure preservation of video and other records.
Fox also reports that new details about the weapons used and body camera footage were provided to members of Congress, indicating that the case had drawn federal legislative attention as well foxnews.com. Those disclosures are not described in detail in the articles available, and the underlying documents have not been posted on public government sites linked above.
2 Incidents, 1 Divided Narrative
What the public can see, based on the videos described by Fox News and The News Movement, is a pattern of escalating contact between one Minneapolis man and federal immigration officers over the course of several days.
In the first recorded encounter, the man identified as Pretti appears to instigate physical damage to a government vehicle and to confront agents aggressively. He also appears to have a gun in his waistband, but walks away without arrest. In the second, he approaches a person on the ground during an immigration operation, is met with force, and ends up dead after officers say he resisted and was armed.
Authorities quoted by Fox News frame the fatal shooting in terms of immediate officer safety. An agent can be heard shouting that Pretti is armed. Officials emphasize that he resisted efforts to take him into custody and that a firearm was taken from his waistband.
Pretti’s family, through their attorney, focuses on two different points. They argue that on the night he was killed, he “posed no threat to anyone,” and they cast the earlier encounter as a prior assault on him rather than a warning sign. They also reject any attempt to link the two events in a way that could make his death seem inevitable or excusable.
Fox News notes that the shooting was the second fatal incident in Minneapolis in recent weeks involving federal immigration agents and confrontations with anti-ICE demonstrators. That context suggests a broader pattern of tense street-level enforcement operations and protest activity, in which recording, close contact, and mutual distrust were common.
What remains unclear from the available reporting is how internal investigators within DHS or external oversight bodies will weigh the earlier video, if at all, when assessing whether agents followed policy and the law on the night they killed Alex Pretti. It is also not yet publicly known why officers in the first incident allowed a man who appeared to be armed and had just damaged a federal vehicle to leave without arrest.
Those unanswered questions sit at the heart of the case. They will determine not only how the government explains the death of a federal employee at the hands of other federal employees, but also how much weight one week of prior conduct will carry in deciding whether anyone is ultimately held accountable.
