Tag: minnesota

Two CBP Agents Identified in Alex Pretti Shooting

The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.

The records viewed by ProPublica list Ochoa, 43, and Gutierrez, 35, as the shooters during the deadly encounter last weekend that left Pretti dead and ignited massive protests and calls for criminal investigations.

Both men were assigned to Operation Metro Surge, an immigration enforcement dragnet launched in December that sent scores of armed and masked agents across the city.

CBP, which employs both men, has so far refused to release their names and has disclosed few other facts about the deadly incident, which came days after a different immigration agent shot and killed another Minneapolis protester, a 37-year-old mother of three named Renee Good.

Pretti’s killing, and the subsequent secrecy surrounding the agents involved, comes as the country confronts the consequences of President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown. The sweeps in cities across the country have been marked by scenes of violence, against immigrants and U.S. citizens, by agents allowed to hide their identities with masks — an almost unheard of practice in law enforcement. As a result, the public has been kept from one of the chief ways it has to hold officers involved in such altercations accountable: their identity.

Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have called for a transparent investigation into the killing of Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse working at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital.

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CCP-Linked Figure Caught Bankrolling Anti-ICE Agitators Through Shady Network

As clashes between agitators and federal law enforcement intensify in Minneapolis, the money trail behind the anti-U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement unrest is starting to surface.

Investigators and congressional Republicans are zeroing in on a wealthy American expat living in China who has been linked to a web of dark money groups accused of fueling far-left activism tied to Chinese Communist Party interests.

A Fox News Digital investigation this week identified several organizations acting as the primary engines behind the Minneapolis unrest, mobilizing protesters and coordinating messaging across multiple platforms to push demonstrations in Minnesota and beyond. Among the most prominent are the Party for Socialism and Liberation and The People’s Forum.

Both groups have been heavily subsidized by former tech executive Neville Roy Singham, according to media reports and congressional probes. Singham, a multimillionaire who sold his IT consulting firm in 2017 for $785 million, relocated to Shanghai and has largely remained out of reach of U.S. authorities.

A former federal prosecutor told Fox News Digital that Singham’s move to China effectively shields him from subpoenas, allowing his funding network to operate with little accountability.

Singham was the subject of a 2023 New York Times investigation that detailed his alleged ties to CCP-aligned propaganda efforts and his role in funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into opaque nonprofit organizations in the U.S. The report said more than a quarter-billion dollars had flowed through entities with vague names, minimal disclosures and mailing addresses tied to commercial mailboxes.

The 71-year-old U.S. citizen reportedly shares office space in Shanghai with the Maku Group, a media company he funds that promotes pro-CCP messaging, including efforts to “tell China’s story well.”

Singham’s name has surfaced in federal investigations for decades. The FBI probed him in 1974 for potentially being “engaged in activities inimical to U.S. interests,” according to records cited by lawmakers.

In 2025, Singham and organizations tied to his funding have faced mounting scrutiny from House and Senate committees. Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., launched a House Oversight investigation last year into Singham’s alleged role in financing anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles.

“Mr. Singham, who resides in the People’s Republic of China, has a long track-record of assisting far-left entities, such as Code Pink, that oppose U.S. interests and support U.S. adversaries,” lawmakers wrote in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi.

The Oversight Committee also flagged the Party for Socialism and Liberation as an organizer of “destructive protests and civil unrest,” pointing directly to Singham’s financial backing. The group did not respond to requests for comment.

The People’s Forum, another alleged organizer in Minneapolis, has drawn similar attention. In 2024, the House Ways and Means Committee questioned the IRS about tax-exempt groups promoting CCP propaganda, naming The People’s Forum in its inquiry.

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RUMOR: Amy Klobuchar Running for Minnesota Governor, Will Appoint Tim Walz to Her Vacant Senate Seat 

Democrat Senator Amy Klobuchar is running for governor of Minnesota to succeed Tim Walz. This is not a rumor. It has been widely reported.

From The Hill:

Klobuchar launches bid for Minnesota governor

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) on Thursday officially threw her hat in the ring to run for governor of Minnesota.

“Minnesotans, we’ve been through a lot,” she wrote on the social platform X. “And I believe this moment calls for grit, resilience, and faith in each other. I believe we must stand up for what’s right. And fix what’s wrong. Today, I’m announcing my candidacy for Governor.”

Klobuchar, in a video message, referred to the June assassination of state Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman (D), a shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis that left two children dead and more than a dozen injured, and the fatal shootings of residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration officials this month, as part of what the state’s residents have “been through.”

“Three thousand [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents on our streets and in our towns, sent by an administration that relishes division,” she added, referring to President Trump.

The aspect of this story that is not being reported, is the belief by many that if Klobuchar wins the race for governor, she will appoint Tim Walz to fill her vacant senate seat.

Under such an arrangement, Klobuchar and Walz would just be switching seats. Journalist Liz Collin of Minnesota talked about this on Watters’ World last night.

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FBI Takes Over Investigation of Alex Pretti Shooting

The FBI is now leading the probe into the shooting of Alex Pretti, the Minneapolis resident killed Saturday by Border Patrol officers, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem first disclosed the shift during a Fox News interview Thursday evening. Her department said earlier this week that Homeland Security Investigations, a unit within the department, would be heading the investigation.

“We will continue to follow the investigation that the FBI is leading and giving them all the information that they need to bring that to conclusion, and make sure that the American people know the truth of the situation and how we can go forward and continue to protect the American people,” Noem said, speaking to Fox host Sean Hannity.

Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin confirmed Friday that the FBI will lead the Pretti probe and that HSI will support them. Separately, Customs and Border Protection, which is part of DHS, is doing its own internal investigation into the shooting, during which two officers opened fire on Pretti.

DHS did not immediately respond to questions about when the change was made or why. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It was also not immediately clear whether the FBI would now share information and evidence with Minnesota state investigators, who have thus far been frozen out of the federal probe.

In the same interview, Noem appeared to distance herself from statements she made shortly after the shooting, claiming Pretti had brandished a handgun and aggressively approached officers.

Multiple videos that emerged of the shooting contradicted that claim, showing the intensive care nurse had only his mobile phone in his hand as officers tackled him to the ground, with one removing a handgun from the back of Pretti’s pants as another officer began firing shots into his back.

Pretti had a state permit to legally carry a concealed firearm. At no point did he appear to reach for it, the videos showed.

“I know you realize that situation was very chaotic, and that we were being relayed information from on the ground from CBP agents and officers that were there,” Noem said during the interview with Hannity on Thursday. “We were using the best information we had at the time, seeking to be transparent with the American people and get them what we knew to be true on the ground.”

The change comes after two other videos emerged Wednesday of an earlier altercation between Pretti and federal immigration officers 11 days before his death.

The Jan. 13 videos show Pretti in a winter coat, yelling at federal vehicles and at one point appearing to spit before kicking out the taillight of one vehicle. A struggle ensues between Pretti and several officers, during which he is forced to the ground. Pretti’s winter coat comes off, and he either breaks free or the officers let him go and he scurries away.

When he turns his back to the camera, what appears to be a handgun is visible in his waistband. At no point do the videos show Pretti reaching for the gun, and it is not clear whether federal agents saw it.

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MSNBC Caught Airbrushing Alex Pretti into Male Model to Milk Sympathy: Joe Rogan Calls BS!

Podcast host Joe Rogan and commentator Andrew Wilson criticized what they described as deliberate image manipulation by major media outlets during a recent exchange, accusing networks of altering appearances to shape public perception.

The discussion centered on a comparison between how MSNBC allegedly edited an image of a man involved in a controversial shooting and how CNN portrayed Rogan himself during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Did you see what MSNBC did to his image?” Rogan asked.

“Yeah. Where they gussied it up,” Wilson replied.

Rogan argued that MSNBC’s treatment of the image stood in stark contrast to his own experience with CNN, which he said altered his appearance in an unflattering way during coverage related to COVID.

“Basically they did the opposite of what CNN did to me. You know, CNN during the covid times, turned me green, and they made me ugly and look like I was dying, and they made him handsome. So people would be more sympathetic to him getting shot, which is kind of wild, like, are ugly people less valuable to MSNBC?” Rogan said.

Wilson responded dryly, “Less marketable.”

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The Minneapolis Shootings Underline the Advantages of Body Cameras, Which DHS Has Been Slow To Adopt

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is reviewing body camera footage of the encounter that culminated in Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti’s death on Saturday. That footage could help clarify the circumstances in which a Border Patrol agent and a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer fatally shot Pretti.

When Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jonathan Ross killed Minneapolis protester Renee Good on January 7, by contrast, he used his cellphone rather than a body camera to record the encounter. Although Vice President J.D. Vance claimed the resulting video confirmed that Ross shot Good in self-defense, it does not actually show what was happening when Ross fired his gun. It is not clear whether other ICE agents at the scene were wearing body cameras, but it seems unlikely, since the local ICE office does not have any.

Both incidents underline the importance of body cameras in resolving questions about the use of force by law enforcement officers. But although body cameras have been widely adopted by state and local law enforcement agencies, their use by DHS personnel is spotty and inconsistent. That could change as a result of negotiations between the Trump administration and Democratic legislators, who are demanding several reforms, including a body camera mandate for all immigration agents, as a condition of approving DHS funding.

So far, the only publicly available video record of the Good and Pretti shootings consists of cellphone footage. In both cases, that evidence discredited the Trump administration’s initial justifications, which portrayed Good and Pretti as would-be murderers. The videos suggest that Good, contrary to what President Donald Trump and other officials said, did not deliberately try to run Ross over with her SUV. And they show that Pretti, who had a carry permit, never drew his pistol or “attacked those officers,” contrary to what DHS Secretary Kristi Noem claimed.

The cellphone videos nevertheless leave several questions unanswered. Some of those questions are legal: Did the officers reasonably believe, given “the totality of the circumstances,” that the use of deadly force was necessary to protect themselves, their colleagues, or the general public? But there are also policy questions: What sort of rules or training would help prevent outcomes like these?

Body camera footage could help answer those questions by providing a more complete record of the events preceding the shootings and by showing what the officers were seeing, hearing, and saying. Consider the account of the Pretti shooting that CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) offered in a report to Congress on Tuesday.

After “CBP personnel attempted to take Pretti into custody,” the OPR report says, “Pretti resisted CBP personnel’s efforts and a struggle ensued. During the struggle, a [Border Patrol agent] yelled, ‘He’s got a gun!’ multiple times. Approximately five seconds later, a [Border Patrol agent] discharged his CBP-issued Glock 19 and a [CBP officer] also discharged his CBP-issued Glock 47 at Pretti. After the shooting, a [Border Patrol agent] advised he had possession of Pretti’s firearm. The [Border Patrol agent] subsequently cleared and secured Pretti’s firearm in his vehicle.”

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Tampon Tim Walz Says He Will ‘Never Again’ Seek Elected Office — Months After Floating a Presidential Run 

Just over a year after his unsuccessful run for vice-president of the United States, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has said he will “never again” seek elected office.

Walz, who served as Kamala Harris’s running mate in the 2024 presidential election, made the remark during an interview with MS Now.

“I will never run for an elected office again,” he said. “Never again.”

“Look, I recognize that I’m a lightning rod,” he continued.

“I know they hate me personally, and they take it out on my constituents.”

Walz recently announced that he would not seek re-election as governor after it emerged he had overseen billions of childcare fraud at the hands of the state’s large Somali community.

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Full known list of Alex Pretti’s battles with cops revealed before Minneapolis nurse was shot dead by DHS

Alex Pretti clashed at least twice with federal agents before one officer gunned him down, marking the second fatal shooting of a protestor in Minnesota this month. 

A Border Patrol agent shot the 37-year-old intensive care nurse during a scuffle at an a January 24 rally against Donald Trump‘s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. 

It followed the fatal shooting of mother-of-three Renee Nicole Good by ICE agent Jonathan ‘Jon’ Ross in the same city on January 7. 

In the weeks before the deadly shooting, Pretti had violent skirmishes with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on at least two occasions. 

January 13  

One clash came on January 13 when Pretti was shown on camera daring ICE agents who were carrying pepper spray to ‘soak me, motherf***er’. 

The video shows Pretti shouting ‘f*** you!’ at the agents, before yelling: ‘What the f*** is wrong with you? Every decision you’ve made in your life is f***ing wrong!’  

He also referred to one of the agents as a ‘pepper spray b****’ and ‘f***ing trash’ as the officers climbed into their SUVs to leave the premises. 

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Democrat Somali Declares Minnesota Neighborhood a ‘No-Go Zone’ for White Americans

The promise America made to us was simple but profound: E Pluribus Unum. Out of many, one. It’s the fundamental covenant that says, despite our different backgrounds, we are all citizens of the same nation, living under one set of laws, and deserving of the same protections. This principle is what keeps us from descending into a mess of warring tribes.

But what happens when our own elected leaders decide that the covenant is optional? What happens when officials sworn to uphold the law start carving out their own private fiefdoms, declaring entire classes of Americans unwelcome and replacing constitutional order with tribal rule? This isn’t just a thought experiment. It’s happening right now, and one Democrat just provided a chilling preview of the left’s ultimate vision for America. And trust me, you aren’t going to like it.

From ‘The Post Millennial’:

The comments were made in a series of posts on X showing Fateh standing in front of the Cedar Riverside towers alongside two other men. “Cedar Strong. White Supremacists aren’t welcome here. We protect our own,” the post read. When pressed by journalist David Marcus, who wrote that Americans do not allow “no-go zones,” Fateh doubled down, replying, “This is a No-Go zone for white supremacists.”

Don’t mistake this for a simple slip of the tongue. This wasn’t a gaffe; it was a confession from Minnesota State Senator Omar Fateh. He is openly promoting the creation of an autonomous enclave on American soil, a place where his political opponents are barred from entry and where a private force, not the police, keeps order.

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Two Border Patrol agents opened fire at Alex Pretti in Minneapolis after he was disarmed, government report states

A new Border Patrol report says that two agents fired the ten shots at Alex Pretti that killed him and does not mention the gun owner taking out his gun.

Pretti, 37, was shot dead in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday during a targeted immigration enforcement operation.

Following the shooting, DHS and Border Patrol officials portrayed Pretti as an instigator who ‘brandished’ a weapon at officers. 

However, a new government report that was sent to Congress on Tuesday claims that while an officer shouted that Pretti had a gun, it does not mention Pretti having taken it out. 

The law requires the agency to inform relevant congressional committees about deaths in CBP custody within 72 hours. 

Investigators from CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility conducted the analysis based on a review of body-worn camera footage and agency documentation, the notice said. 

The agency is required to report in-custody and certain other deaths involving its agents and officers to Congress. 

Officials said that at around 9am Saturday, CBP agents were faced with several protesters ‘yelling and blowing whistles’ at the officers, while also blocking the roadway at the intersection of 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue.

After making ‘several verbal requests’ for the protesters to stop, CBP claims two women confronted the agents while blowing whistles. They were ordered to get out of the roadway but refused. 

They said that the women were then ‘pushed away’ and one of the ran to Pretti, with both again refusing to leave the roadways. 

The officer then deployed pepper spray at both of them, while attempting to arrest Pretti.

‘CBP personnel attempted to take Pretti into custody. Pretti resisted CBP personnel’s efforts and a struggle ensued,’ the report claims. 

‘During the struggle, a (Border Patrol agent) yelled, ‘He’s got a gun!’ multiple times.’

The report continues: ‘Approximately five seconds later, a (Border Patrol agent) discharged his CBP-issued Glock 19 and a (Customs and Border Protection officer) also discharged his CBP-issued Glock 47 at Pretti.’ 

Within five seconds, one agent and one officer discharged the shots, with one using a Glock 19 and the other a Glock 47. 

An agent took possession of Pretti’s gun and cleared and secured it shortly after the shooting. 

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