Videos show Alex Pretti in confrontation with agents 11 days before his death
The nurse who was fatally shot by United States federal agents in Minneapolis last Sunday was pushed to the ground by different agents at a protest 11 days before he was killed, according to newly unearthed videos that show him spitting and cursing at them and kicking a taillight on one of their SUVs.
The footage adds to what is known about the 37-year-old nurse, Alex Pretti, who was killed by federal agents after they pepper sprayed him and pushed him and a woman to the ground, a killing that set off protests in the Twin Cities and across the US.
In the earlier incident, on January 13, Pretti — wearing some of the same clothing as when he was killed — can be seen running towards a street corner in the South Minneapolis neighbourhood of Powderhorn where a crowd of protesters have gathered and are jeering at federal agents.
“What are you doing here?” he shouts at agents who are standing next to two of their SUVs.
He repeatedly curses at them and spits at one agent as the agent is getting into a vehicle.
When the agents begin to drive away, Pretti kicks twice at one of the vehicle’s taillights, breaking it.
That seems to prompt the agents to get back out of the vehicle and push him to the ground.
The agents, at least some of whom are with Homeland Security Investigations, a division of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, hold Pretti on the ground for about 20 seconds before letting him go and driving off.
As Pretti gets back to his feet, what appears to be a gun is seen tucked into the back waistband of his pants.
During the later confrontation with agents in which Pretti was killed, he had a gun holstered on his hip.
One agent grabbed the gun from Pretti’s holster moments before two other agents shot at Pretti.
Both of the officers who fired — one with Border Patrol and another with its parent agency, Customs and Border Protection — have been put on leave as part of the agency’s protocol for when agents are involved in shootings. Neither has been identified.
At least two videos showing Pretti’s earlier encounter with federal agents had been online for about two weeks.
But it wasn’t until today, when a news outlet called the News Movement published another video of the confrontation and identified Pretti in the footage, that the encounter attracted attention.
A representative for Pretti’s family confirmed that it was him in the video published by the news outlet.
“A week before Alex was gunned down in the street — despite posing no threat to anyone — he was violently assaulted” by federal agents, a lawyer for Pretti’s family, Steve Schleicher, said in a statement.
“Nothing that happened a full week before could possibly have justified Alex’s killing.”
Pretti’s parents and sister have denounced lies that they say Trump Administration officials have perpetuated about Pretti, and have described him as a good man who helped treat sick patients at Minneapolis’ Veterans Affairs hospital.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
Photograph by: Victor J. Blue
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