Alex Pretti's Earlier Scuffle With ICE Doesn't Justify His Death 11 Days Later

Video of that scuffle does show that federal agents can manage to not shoot even violent protestors.

Yesterday, news outlet The News Moment posted now-verified footage of Alex Pretti, the man killed by immigration enforcement agents this past Saturday in Minneapolis, scuffling with federal agents 11 days before he was fatally shot.

In the video, Pretti is seen behaving aggressively, screaming at the Immigration and Customs (ICE) agents, spitting on their vehicle, and then kicking out their vehicle's taillight as they attempt to drive away.

Agents then exit their vehicle and tackle Pretti to the ground, before letting him go and driving off. As Pretti gets off the ground, one sees what appears to be a handgun stuffed in the back of his waistband.

Conservatives have immediately seized on the footage as proof that Pretti was a violent and dangerous anti-ICE radical and not some peaceful protester.

MUST WATCH: Footage of an a man who looks like Alex Pretti with a gun in his waistband, spitting on and attacking federal law enforcement officers and kicking the tail light of their vehicle on January 13.

Bombshell report from the BBC.

Important context: Pretti was not a… pic.twitter.com/snzEO8rU8w

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) January 28, 2026

Some have said this is relevant "context" for his later shooting death.

If confirmed, this would indeed be relevant context. https://t.co/D5TzHK2NFA

— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) January 28, 2026

Others, while saying the video doesn't directly impact his murder investigation, do say it is evidence that Pretti was looking for a fight and eventually got one.

Alex Pretti was an anti-ICE fanatic who was reckless, violent, and driven by a (literally) spittle-flecked hatred of federal agents

That he would, in short order, get into two of these kind of altercations while armed is absolutely insane

It doesn't change the analysis of the… https://t.co/zOLG0A0Iy2

— Rich Lowry (@RichLowry) January 29, 2026

Anyone who's followed news coverage of police shootings in the past will be familiar with this "no angel" line of commentary. Past instances of someone behaving badly are dredged up to color one's interpretation of a later, unconnected incident.

Past bad conduct transmutes blame from perpetrator to victim, even if it's completely irrelevant to their later victimization.

Alert observers should resist falling for this trick. The fact that Pretti kicked out a taillight of a police vehicle does nothing to justify his slaying by federal agents 11 days later in a completely separate incident, when he was not behaving violently.

Whether Pretti's death is prosecutable murder hinges almost entirely on whether officers had a reasonable fear for their lives when they shot a restrained, disarmed man.

Pretti's earlier violence has nothing to do with that moment-by-moment analysis.

To the degree it is relevant, Pretti's past violent behavior is actually evidence of how unjustified his killing was.

In the earlier incident, Pretti is armed and behaves aggressively toward federal officers who, after a brief fight, leave the scene without gunning him down.

If they managed to avoid the use of force in that earlier, more serious incident without consequence, one wonders how agents' deadly force could possibly be thought necessary in the later incident where Pretti was killed.

Comments

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Move along. Nothing to see here.

[Kungpowderfinger]

Weird that it took the BBC to get this video out. Sort of reminds me of when the Drudge Report broke the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal that all the other media outlets were sitting on.

[Michael Ejercito]

It is circumstantial evidence that the shooting was justified.

[Social Justice is neither]

I wouldn't go to a certainty of a justified shoot but it does show he likely wasn't the innocent bystander Christian pretends and it lends weight to the fighting with cops description that muddies the water from the narrative of a pristine bad shoot.

[HorseConch]

It certainly paints a picture that he likely did more to instigate the situation that did warrant a physical response that he continued to resist and make more physical. Without seeing quite a bit more evidence, the shooting still seems pretty suspect, but I would not expect the result to be any different if I were to act the way he does towards a group of law enforcement officers while armed.

[JFree]

Only if you are asserting that ICE is there to do something other than pick a fight with protestors. There's a lot of evidence that ICE's tactics are:
1)to go to a neighborhood where they can intimidate/harass/arrest people who 'look illegal' in quiet and without anyone observing
2)once the whistles come out, their cover is blown and they immediately switch attention to detaining/attacking observers.
3)there are no illegals around after the whistles come out. That's the whole fucking point. For people who are a likely target to leave and for those with phones to turn them on and start filming.
4)if there are no more illegals at that point - there is no legitimate law enforcement function occurring. Their daily quota is in jeopardy and since they are screened IN for thuggery and OUT for skills, they simply go on a police riot.

If Pretti LIVED in one of those targeted neighborhoods, then he would have faced a very real daily issue. Initiated not by him but by ICE targeting his neighborhood daily.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Pure desperation. Turns out your martyr wasn't a saint. Your fever dreams notwithstanding.

[JFree]

Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed — in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical — and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied Dietrich Bonhoeffer

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Not sure what your point is. You made assertions without facts in the record. No one has a duty to refute.

[JFree]

Those assertions are a summary of info from local sources. You choose national sources that fit a political agenda you agree with.

On the same day that Renee Good was murdered; ICE agents knocked on a door in a neighborhood ordering the resident/citizen to identify where Hmong people lived; a pastor was arrested at his church where there was a protest; ICE entered a hospital without warrants and handcuffed patients to beds; ICE teargassed a HS (MPS closed schools for the remainder of that week); arrested an illegal and sent him to TX (now dead - of 'suicide', no investigation allowed); arrested citizens working at McDonalds (attempted to arrest without a warrant - stopped by security) and Target (detained and then released)

We used to believe that local news was a useful way to get info - and obviously its easy to assess local news even from other local sources. Stupid people no longer believe any of that. You watch Fox or Newsmax and repeat their slogans and catchphrases..

[damikesc]

I notice the lack of any evidence to bolster your "claims"

[Minadin]

I wouldn't go that far.

What it does do is completely destroys the left wing / media narrative that this guy was just some peaceful ICU nurse exercising his rights to 'legally observe' or 'peacefully protest'. And it establishes at least a bit of a pattern of behavior, from which reasonable people can make inferences.

[Dillinger]

sure ... just don't call it a legal carry

[mad.casual]

Right. Parse Ross's actions in the 3s between the time the vehicle started accelerating and the 3rd shot for the precise nanosecond "reasonable fear" ended, but actions across weeks showing that Pretti was repeatedly and consistently somewhere between blatantly disregarding any/all laws and blatantly disregarding his own safety and the safety of those around him?

OIC... Britches is appealing to the AWFL, pro-abortion portion of the audience.

[Social Justice is neither]

So he was an unhinged, violent instigator but that doesn't matter because he got out mostly unharmed once so that proves he can act like an unhinged, violent psychopath as much as he likes without risk. Sorry but you Leftist twats don't get to have it both ways where every action on one side is excused and doesn't matter while the other side is held to a cherry-picked response as the only possible outcome. Moron decided to live by a code of FAFO and he did as the odds of consequences for his violent, unhinged behavior caught up with him.

[HorseConch]

I'm a firm believer in the 2A and am fully in favor of people carrying for protection. That being said, myself and about anyone else with a brain, understand that his actions exponentially increased his chances of being killed than had he acted like a normal human being and a responsible gun owner.

[Michael Ejercito]

Getting between law enforcement and a third party?

Since when was that a good idea?

[HorseConch]

Never. You fight bad cops in court not in the streets. I'm not fully convinced we're dealing with bad cops yet, but that's not the kind of thing you work out in the street regardless.

[Incunabulum]

It doesn't have to justify it Britches.

It does go to show state of mind and intentions though.

You're just mad that you thought this one would stick to the wall, that this time you had your righteous martyr and could boast about his blood on your hands after you stuck your fingers in the bullet holes.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

A regular Jesse Jackson.

[Moonrocks]

Wait, I thought we were supposed to cheer when cops shoot armed insurrectionists engaged in insurrection. Did something change recently?

[IceTrey]

No, unarmed females.

[Dillinger]

gotta shoot through a door or it doesn't count

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

(D)ifferent. Again.

[I, Woodchipper]

No one is saying it justifies being shot.

They're saying it indicates a pattern of violent confrontation with the agents and that maybe, just maybe, he is partially to blame for the escalation of the conflict that led to him getting shot.

In my opinion I think this incident was borderline suicide by cop. you have to be a fucking idiot to keep fighting with five officers on you when you know you are strapped. Or suicidal.

[IceTrey]

Minnesota also has a required to retreat law.

[mad.casual]

"Where did all the 2A advocates go? Hur-dur." - Reason

[Bruce Hayden]

Not for police. If the police were subject to the Duty to Retreat, they would likely never make an arrest. The criminals would, essentially, have a heckler’s veto over their facing consequences for their actions.

Besides, ICE and CBP operate under federal law, where there is no Duty to Retreat, as is the case in most states.

[IceTrey]

Pretti had a requirement to retreat.

[Benitacanova]

More like martyrdom by cop.

[Use the Schwartz]

Step 1: It’s not really happening
Step 2: Yeah, it’s happening, but it’s not a big deal
Step 3: It’s a good thing, actually
Step 4: People freaking out about it are the real problem

Which step are we on again?

[I, Woodchipper]

To the degree it is relevant, Pretti's past violent behavior is actually evidence of how unjustified his killing was.

In the earlier incident, Pretti is armed and behaves aggressively toward federal officers who, after a brief fight, leave the scene without gunning him down.

If they managed to avoid the use of force in that earlier, more serious incident without consequence, one wonders how agents' deadly force could possibly be thought necessary in the later incident where Pretti was killed.

This is such a half-brained take it makes me wonder if you're being disingenuous.

[GOD OF PENGUIN ISLAND]

It doesn’t make me wonder.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

And how were the cops supposed to know this? Did Pretti carry a sign saying "I attacked you last weekend without shooting any of you"?

[mad.casual]

I'm no ICE Agent, but I've watched a game film or two.

If I was watching the previous incident where he was released with a gun in his belt after defacing/destroying federal property, I'd consider that an error.

If "ICU Nurse" is relevant, then prior engagement is absolutely fair game. We, sure as shit, got the full backstory about Ashli Babbitt's journey from the Air Force, through QAnon, and into the Capital on Jan. 6th.

[HorseConch]

Nothing screams stable, caring nurse like kicking the shit out of a Fed's vehicle while armed.

[Scooter]

Not exactly my first choice if I required a cathater.

Just sayin'.

[Ron]

Did the officers in the first encounter know Pretti was armed. that is the key. if not you let them go for being an ass if they knew he had a gun he should have been arrested then and his license removed. Life saved

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Yes that's the relevant issue. If the cops in the first incident were aware that he had a gun they would have been required to disarm him and since he may very well not have been carrying his ID he would have been arrested on multiple charges. Of course the local cops would have to be involved and the local prosecutor would have to press charges which would require cooperation with ICE something that they have sworn they won't do.

[GOD OF PENGUIN ISLAND]

It shows that you and your ilk are leftist propagandists that got caught lying to everyone though.

[Dillinger]

the NBC take @Reason saves them time

[Stupid Government Tricks]

This is a strawman. Most people are not arguing his death was justified, as in cops acting as judge, jury, and executioner. Most people are saying his death was predictable from his doing stupid things (getting between a protester and the cop who had just knocked her down, picking a fight with a cop while armed, and then resisting arrest) with stupid people (the protesters and/or the cops, your choice) at a stupid place and time (a police operation).

Like I have said several times, insisting on his rights had predictable consequences just as insisting on taking your right of way and bulling through an intersection has predictable consequences. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you get unlucky. He got lucky two weeks before, and unlucky this time. He was still stupid.

[Homer Thompson]

no longer the peaceful protester we were all led to believe

[Kungpowderfinger]

Past instances of someone behaving badly are dredged up to color one's interpretation of a later, unconnected incident.

Just give up on this fool and start auditioning more useful idiots. You’ll eventually get the right one killed that Team Blue needs to start riots across the US.

[IceTrey]

Thank God they've been shooting white people.

[Kungpowderfinger]

In general it seems that the US African American population doesn’t seem to give a shit about Open Boarderz.

Weird

[Gaear Grimsrud]

They don't like hanging out with crazy old white people. Seems rational to me.

[Bruce Hayden]

Esp when the illegals take jobs from Blacks.

Maybe what the Trump Administration should do, is go into the Black Communities there, and tell them that from a federal point of view, it was open season on illegals. Maybe even offer a bounty, for every illegal delivered to ICE or CBD. Better make sure that the illegal is alive though. Or, at least pay more for live ones.

[Benitacanova]

Kids in cages!

[Sun Wukong]

Also, no black person would be stupid enough to go find the cops and act like that. That is something only a liberal white person would do.

[Mike Parsons]

They enjoy the AWFL population in so much as they make great foot soldiers and ally shields for BLM type movements, this one they have minimal skin in the game.

This is very much elite democrats who want continued slave labor paired with college educated and mentally ill white women who have had white guilt burnt into their brains for years. The black coalition is almost absent from all this, save for the neo black panthers who are LARPing their little hilarious militia.

Good time to note that LEGAL hispanics also arent out in force, unless you count the ones working for ICE

[IceTrey]

I think they do. The Democrats are replacing them with migrants.

[Spiritus Mundi]

^This is what will happen:

1. Good not sympathetic enough because she rammed the officer with her car.
2. Pretti not sympathetic enough because of previous unhinged, violent attacks on ICE.
3. Some kid they will use as their next useful idiot......

[Kungpowderfinger]

Hopefully these idiots aren’t so evil as to start bringing their kids to the ICE riots, in hopes of one becoming a victim that their “movement” needs. However, some of these fucks have shown no problem with transitioning their kids to virtue signal, so anything is possible.

[damikesc]

They very much bring their young children to the protests. One mom said her child is no more important than anybody else's child.

These women are insane.

[HorseConch]

That's already happening, hence the gofundme for the lady convicted of aiding a murder:

https://x.com/WellsJorda89710/status/2014307012755018089

[GOD OF PENGUIN ISLAND]

"Hopefully these idiots aren’t so evil as to start bringing their kids to the ICE riots,"

Already happening, actually.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

If he robbed a liquor store the week before it might be unconnected if he's charged with DUI. If he gets into a violent altercation with ICE and does it again 11 days later it seems kinda connected to me.

[mad.casual]

Alex Pretti's Earlier Scuffle With ICE Doesn't Justify His Death 11 Days Later

In a legal sense maybe. In a cosmic sense, a sucking chest wound is nature's way of telling you to tone it down.

[Ron]

Yes even with his bruised ribs from the first encounter he didn't learn his lesson. he was a Darwin award winner.

[Uomo Del Ghiaccio]

Christian Britschgi, The only thing this video show is that Alex Pretti was not the innocent bystander the media has been portraying him to be, but rather he has a pattern of violating the law by obstructing a federal law enforcement operation.

At this point there is no established connection between the agents in this video and the agents involved in the shooting incident. They may or may not be the same agents, we simply don't know at this time.

I don't know if the shooting was justified or not, there simply is not enough information to claim anything definitive at this point in time.

What I do know is the ICE is not as well equipped for crowd control that the local police are. The Minneapolis police should be actively managing crowd control instead of being barred by the Minneapolis City council. Not saying that the Minneapolis police should be taking a active role in assisting in the arrest of illegal immigrants, just crowd control.

This is a basic duty and responsibility of local police and the Minneapolis police are being derelict in their duties, however the blame solely lies with the Minneapolis City Council and Mayor Jacob Frey.

With the recalcitrant Minneapolis City Council and Mayor Jacob Frey refusing to allow the Minneapolis police to simply perform crown control, the State of Minnesota should have stepped in. Governor Tim Walz activate the Minnesota National Guard, not to perform crowd control, but to hand out donuts and coffee to the protestors. I don't even have a problem with handing out donuts and coffee, if they kept the protestors on the sidewalks and not in the middle of the street. However, there was no crowd control, just protestor support.

Immigration agents should only be focused on what the congress has tasked them with. Instead they have to manage crowds in addition to their charge and responsibilities.

Would I have confronted sanctuary cities in this manner, probably not. I would be more favorable to cutting off all federal funding to sanctuary cities.

[MWAocdoc]

"there simply is not enough information to claim anything definitive at this point in time."

And there never will be if DHS and ICE officials successfully stonewall any meaningful investigation into the incident. Perhaps a Congressional investigation or defunding of the Agency can break through the lies.

[Bruce Hayden]

And there isn’t going to be the transparency you want as long as Keith Ellison remains MN AG. Maybe the person most responsible for the BLM riots of 2020, when he prosecuted those four Minneapolis PD officers, resulting in convictions and incarcerations for essentially trying to keep George Floyd alive after having his voluntarily overdose on fentanyl. Turns out, the purpose of that restraint was to keep narcotics ODs from aspirating on their own vomit, and dying, before medical assistance can arrive. The police had requested an ambulance Code 2 when they noticed OD symptoms, but upped their call to Code 3 when Floyd started having breathing problems. That was also when they removed him from their police car, and put him in this OD restraint. Unfortunately, the crowds of angry Black protesters were so thick that the ambulance couldn’t get there until too late, even running their lights and sirens.

The key point though is that Ellison’s prosecutors intentionally introduced false testimony in court, to get the convictions, that they knew at the time was false. Turns out that the OD restraint they were using was SOP with the Minneapolis PD at the time, and was taught at the Police Academy, that three of the officers had recently graduated from. Also, their expert testified that the OD restraint killed Floyd (despite no corresponding bruising), instead of his OD (despite a potentially lethal level of fentanyl in his system).

So, no, the Trump Administration doesn’t trust the Dems/DFL running Minneapolis and Minnesota to be honest. Esp with the top Dems facing epic corruption investigations for the massive Somali fraud that they were skimming from. And is keeping them in office.

[MWAocdoc]

"To the degree it is relevant, Pretti's past violent behavior is actually evidence of how unjustified his killing was."

Although this may be true in context, it is only half the truth. If Pretti himself had been arrested instead of killed, a pattern of violent behavior leading up to his arrest might very well be considered relevant to both the level of charges and to the level of punishment if convicted. That would also make the pattern of behavior of ICE Agents relevant in the unlikely event that one or more of them were arrested for killing Pretti.

[Mike Parsons]

It seems they found his Signal handle in the leaked chats, and now the overall picture is more complete.

This is an unhinged guy who was part of the groups following ICE around and harassing them while they were carrying out warrants. And he was one that was continually looking to get physical with them (and did) while carrying without ID.

It paints the picture of a gassed up shock trouper for the left who thought he was fighting the Nazi's. It paints the picture of someone who was looking for the confrontation he ended up getting. He was practically begging them to engage with him after confronting them.

Also highlights: Had all law enforcement (CBP, ICE, state/local cops) cracked down on this stuff in the first place, wouldnt have happened. He should have been arrested that day for assaulting a federal agent and destroying federal property, he would have lost his CCW and been locked up to cool his jets.

Unfortunately Walz got the chaos he wanted by maximizing the rhetoric, hate, confusion, and animus toward "the gestapo"

[Benitacanova]

Not a pretti picture.

[mad.casual]

And now for some border/immigration news that's not explicitly Tim Walz/Violent revolutionary Marxist-friendly propaganda:

Chinese Whistleblower Scores a Rare Win in Asylum Case

- In 2020, Guan secretly filmed detention facilities in Xinjiang, adding to a body of evidence of what activists say are widespread rights abuses in the Chinese region, where as many as 1 million members of ethnic minorities, especially the Uyghurs, have been locked up.
- During Wednesday's hearing in Napanoch, New York, Guan was asked if his intention in filming the detention facilities and then releasing the video a few days before arriving in the US was to give him grounds to apply for asylum. He said that was not his goal. "I sympathized with the Uyghurs who were persecuted," Guan told the court through a translator.
- Guan knew he had to leave China if he wanted to publish the footage, he told the AP. He went first to Hong Kong and from there to Ecuador, where Chinese tourists could travel without a visa, and then to the Bahamas. He released most of his footage on YouTube before taking a boat to Florida in October 2021. Guan told the judge he didn't know whether he would survive the boat trip and wanted to make sure the footage would be seen.

China executes 11 members of Myanmar scam mafia

China has executed 11 members of a notorious mafia family that ran scam centres in Myanmar along its north-eastern border, state media report.

The Ming family members were sentenced in September for various crimes including homicide, illegal detention, fraud and operating gambling dens by a court in China's Zhejiang province.

The Mings were one of many clans that ran the town of Laukkaing, transforming an impoverished backwater town into a flashy hub of casinos and red-light districts.

Their scam empire came crashing down in 2023, when they were detained and handed over to China by ethnic militias that had taken control of Laukkaing during an escalation in their conflict with Myanmar's army.

With these executions Beijing is sending a message of deterrence to would-be scammers. But the business has now moved to Myanmar's border with Thailand, and to Cambodia and Laos, where China has much less influence.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked to run online scams in Myanmar and elsewhere in South East Asia, according to estimates by the UN. Among them are thousands of Chinese people, and their victims who they swindle billions of dollars from are mainly Chinese too.

[NealAppeal]

Conservatives have immediately seized on the footage as proof that Pretti was a violent and dangerous anti-ICE radical and not some peaceful protester.

And the other side of the coin doesn't see the actions in the video as violent, dangerous, radical, and unpeaceful?

That's [D]ifferent.

[damikesc]

Their violence is speech. Remember?

[Mickey Rat]

In and of itself what he did earlier does not justify his death. On the other hand, it may lend credibility to the eyewitness accounts of the events that led to his shooting by establishing a pattern of behavior towards immigration enforcement on his part.

Playing dumb on this sort of thing is not a good look, Britschgi.

[damikesc]

Why give Christian the benefit of the doubt?

He is not PLAYING dumb.

[Vernon Depner]

Pretti was a violent and dangerous anti-ICE radical

Correct.

[Rick James]

And yet, being an ICU nurse somehow classifies him as untouchable and undeserving of his fate.

[Bruce Hayden]

What’s funny is that the original video of Pretti kicking out the taillight of the ICE SUV came from the BBC, which went on to do facial recognition on the images to prove, at a maybe 95% confidence level, that it was Pretti taking out the tail light.

The same BBC that is mostly under control of the far left British government. And yet, they were the real journalists here, and not the army that the MSM here had sent.