Videos and witness statements shed new light on moments leading up to Alex Pretti shooting

Curt Devine, Thomas Bordeaux, Isabelle Chapman, Casey Tolan, Yahya Abou-Ghazala, CNN... See moreMon, January 26, 2026 at 12:32 AM UTC

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Federal officers amid tear gas after other immigration agents shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday. - Tim Evans/Reuters

Shortly before his fatal encounter with federal immigration agents on Saturday, Alex Pretti was confronted on a Minneapolis street by an officer who was later on the scene of his shooting, video analyzed by CNN shows.

That video, combined with court declarations filed by eyewitnesses, sheds new light on the moments that led up to the deadly incident.

Those moments are facing heightened scrutiny amid escalating rhetoric by Trump administration officials who sought to cast Pretti as a violent agitator involved in a “riot” as federal agents carried out an immigration operation.

“The suspect did bring a weapon, a loaded nine-millimeter high-capacity handgun, to a riot,” Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino told CNN on Sunday. He claimed that Pretti “was in the scene actively impeding and assaulting law enforcement,” and that Border Patrol agents were “the victims” in the shooting.

Much remains unknown about the moments before Pretti’s death, including when he arrived at the scene and what he did before the incidents recorded on camera.

But video analyzed by CNN so far does not capture any violent actions by protesters, who blow whistles and yell at federal agents – nor does it show Pretti acting violently or holding the handgun that a federal officer removed from his waistband seconds before he was killed.

“I see nothing that Mr. Pretti did that was unlawful,” said Rob Doar, the president of Minnesota Gun Owners Law Center. “The narrative that’s been coming out (of the administration) afterwards, I think is going to have a chilling effect … it’s going to confuse people about the rights that they actually have.”

One of the earliest accounts of the start of the protest comes from an unnamed witness who filed a declaration in federal court in support of an ongoing case against the Department of Homeland Security over its immigration crackdown.

That witness, a children’s face-painter who lives in Minneapolis’ Whittier neighborhood where the shooting took place, described getting ready for work when first hearing protesters’ whistles at about 8:50 a.m., records show.

In the filing, the witness recounted driving to the corner of Nicollet Avenue and West 26th Street, toward the sounds, and saw several federal agents and about 15 protesters gathered – including Pretti, whom the witness said was “acting to help traffic move more smoothly.” ICE agents were “surrounding cars and punching car windows,” the witness wrote.

In a statement on X, DHS said that agents in the area “were conducting a targeted operation in Minneapolis against an illegal alien wanted for violent assault.”

Nilson Barahona, another witness, told CNN that he was at Glam Doll Donuts on the same street when someone fleeing federal agents ran into the restaurant. The donut shop staff quickly locked the doors, and when agents couldn’t get inside, they turned their attention to “those who were outside, who had come to help,” Barahona said. Outside the restaurant, Barahona said observers began making noise and blowing their whistles.

Another video shot from a passing car and analyzed by CNN shows two federal officers walking across the street and confronting Pretti in nearly the same spot where he was later shot dead.

One officer, wearing a dark-colored jacket and light-brown beanie, is seen placing a hand on Pretti’s torso and pushing him backwards out of the street as Pretti records with his phone. Pretti appears to be talking animatedly to the agent pushing him, but his words are inaudible.

It’s not clear at exactly what point the video was recorded in the minutes leading up to the shooting. The unnamed witness wrote in the court declaration that soon after they arrived, an agent came “and asked us to back up.” Pretti, the witness said, “stayed in the street, filming.”

About two minutes before the shooting, another video recorded from a nearby car shows federal agents holding someone down in the middle of the road and then leading them away. Pretti can be seen standing at the edge of the street, apparently recording the scene with his phone. The witness described seeing someone being thrown to the ground, although it’s unclear if that’s the same incident.

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Multiple bystander recordings show what happened next, according to a CNN analysis of seven videos. Pretti is seen waving traffic by on the street before shouting at an officer, who then approaches him and pushes another female observer. After Pretti moves between the officer and the woman, the officer sprays him with a chemical irritant and pulls him to his knees.

At least six other agents quickly gather, with officers standing over Pretti and pushing him to the ground as he appears to resist them, leading to a scrum on the street. The agent in the light-brown beanie who had pushed Pretti in the earlier video is seen standing nearby.

Another agent, wearing a gray jacket, can be seen from some camera angles reaching into the pile of other officers and retrieving a weapon that seems to match the firearm, DHS says Pretti possessed, before walking away. About a second later, the first of a total of 10 shots ring out, leaving Pretti’s body lying on the ground.

“They shot him so many times,” the witness wrote in the declaration. “I don’t know why they shot him. He was only helping. I was five feet from him and they just shot him.”

People gather at a makeshift memorial in the area where Pretti was shot dead in Minneapolis on Saturday. - ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/AFP via Getty Images

In a statement on X, DHS said that “medics on scene immediately delivered medical aid.”

However, the videos don’t appear to show federal agents providing Pretti medical assistance until more than a minute after the shooting – although several officers seem to start searching his motionless body after about 30 seconds.

Another witness who filed a court declaration, a pediatrician who saw the shooting from their apartment window and then went to the scene to help, said that ICE agents initially resisted allowing them to assess Pretti.

“None of the ICE agents who were near the victim were performing CPR, and I could tell the victim was in critical condition,” the pediatrician wrote in the declaration. “I insisted that the agents let me assess him… I felt a professional and moral obligation to help this man, especially since none of the agents were helping him.”

The pediatrician wrote that an agent finally relented after patting them down to check for weapons. Pretti was lying on his side, which the pediatrician said is not standard medical practice for a shooting victim.

“Checking for a pulse and administering CPR is standard practice,” the pediatrician wrote. “Instead of doing either of these things, the ICE agents appeared to be counting his bullet wounds.” Pretti had multiple bullet wounds and no pulse, the pediatrician wrote, saying they began CPR before EMS personnel arrived and took over.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at a news conference about the shooting on Saturday. - Al Drago/Getty Images

On Sunday, as the videos of the deadly incident ricocheted across social media, Trump administration officials continued to reiterate their claim that Pretti’s shooting was justified.

“When an officer tells you to back off and gives you orders, you should comply,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a Fox News interview. “You shouldn’t show up with weapons… and no indication of how they’re going to be used.” Opponents of immigration operations in Minneapolis, she said, “aren’t just protesters, these are violent rioters.”

But policing experts interviewed by CNN questioned whether the use of force was legitimate – pointing to the hail of bullets once Pretti was already prone on the ground, and noting that Pretti did not seem to actively threaten agents.

Brian Higgins, an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a retired police chief, noted that “there are a lot of questions that have to be answered” about the shooting, including how Pretti’s firearm may have influenced officers’ perception of the situation.

Still, “this individual didn’t appear to me to even have his hand on the firearm at any time,” Higgins said. “So really, there’s no threat. He’s just carrying it.”

CNN’s Kyung Lah, Jeff Winter and Audrey Ash contributed to this report.

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