Tag: police shootings

Inside Minneapolis’s ICE Watch Network

In less than a month, two “ICE watchers” have been shot and killed by immigration enforcement agents in Minneapolis. On January 24, a federal agent shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a Veterans Affairs ICU nurse. His death follows that of Renée Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, who was killed on January 7.

Both Pretti and Good participated in “ICE watching,” an anti-immigration-enforcement tactic that can involve tracking ICE agents, filming arrests, and alerting other activists of enforcement actions. While participants frame ICE watching as a “community safety” measure, these tactics often place untrained civilians in direct, high-stakes confrontation with armed federal agents.

In Minneapolis, one key organizer of these activities is “Defend the 612.” The group, the membership of which apparently included Renee Good, oversees a massive network of Signal chats dedicated to monitoring and protesting ICE activity. It has become the beating heart of the city’s resistance to federal immigration enforcement. (The group’s name refers to the Minneapolis area code.)

City Journal reviewed Defend the 612’s trainings, entered its Signal network, and traced its organizational support. Our reporting reveals that members and related officials have encouraged protesters to impede law enforcement; pushed civilians toward legally and physically risky confrontations; and helped mobilize a counterprotest that turned violent.

The group’s growth threatens to stoke the city’s already-raging fire.

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Of Lies and Surges

Two headlines caught my eye this AM in my email media stream.

From the New York Times: “How the Trump Administration Rushed to Judgment in Minneapolis Shooting”

There was no “judgment” displayed in the execution of Alex Pretti. The Trump administration blatantly, maliciously, and viciously lied about what happened. Video evidence incontrovertibly shows that the Trump administration lied. Period.

Trump officials simply didn’t and don’t care about the truth. About justice. About the life of a U.S. citizen. They only care about their own petty lives and violent narratives. Anyone who gets in their way is a potential “domestic terrorist.” They’re sending a loud message clearly: resist us and you’ll end up bloodied in the streets – and maybe dead.

All governments lie, as I.F. Stone famously reminded us. But rarely can I remember lies of such obvious viciousness about regular people whose only real crime is exercising their right to dissent in democracy.

The other headline was this one from the Boston Globe: “Maine and Minnesota: A tricky tale of ICE surges in two states.”

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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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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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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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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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Alex Pretti broke rib in violent confrontation with ICE just days before he was shot dead in Minneapolis

Alex Pretti had been injured in a scuffle with federal agents in Minneapolis just one week before he was shot dead, it has emerged.

Pretti, 37, was left with a broken rib after being tackled by a group of officers during a protest against Donald Trump‘s immigration crackdown, a source told CNN.

The alleged assault occurred after Pretti stopped his car after seeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers chasing a family on foot, the insider said. 

Pretti allegedly began shouting and blowing a whistle, and was then tackled to the ground by five agents. The source claimed one officer leaned on his back, causing his ribs to break. 

The ICU nurse, who allegedly ‘thought he was going to die’, was reportedly released at the scene – but allegedly remained on federal agents’ radar.

Agents deployed in Minneapolis were instructed earlier this month to ‘capture all images, license plates, identifications, and general information on hotels, agitators, protestors,’ according to documents obtained by the outlet. 

Federal officers are understood to have kept documented details about Pretti, although it is unclear when they first started collecting information on him. 

He was shot dead by a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis on Saturday.

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Somali Member of Minnesota House of Representatives Uses Doctored Image of Alex Pretti in Memorial Tribute

Minnesota State Representative Mohamud Noor has come under fire for using what appears to be an AI-enhanced or filtered image of Alex Pretti, the armed man shot by a federal agent in Minneapolis over the weekend, in a social media memorial post.

The bizarrely altered photo appears to have been manipulated to make Pretti look more attractive.

Pretti, 37, was fatally shot after he engaged in a scuffle with federal agents who were in the middle of an immigration enforcement operation.

Noor, a Democrat who represents District 60B in the Minnesota House, posted a tribute to Pretti on X, writing:

“Words can’t describe our pain. Our hearts are broken, but our spirit is strong. Alex Pretti was killed standing for his neighbors. This has to stop. Our community deserves safety, transparency, and accountability. RIP Alex.”

However, the image he used bears absolutely no resemblance to the original. It appeared he used AI tools or heavy filters to “enhance” Pretti’s appearance, making him look more conventionally attractive by smoothing his skin, thickening his hair, and altering facial features.

Naturally, Noor was absolutely blasted in the replies and quote posts.

“Why are you guys trying to make him better looking through AI and filters? That’s actually twisted,” one user wrote.

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