Eleven days before federal agents shot Alex Pretti ten times in broad daylight, the 37-year-old ICU nurse stood in a Minneapolis street and dared ICE agents to pepper spray him to his face.
“F***ing soak me, motherf***er!” Pretti yelled at the armed federal officers, according to newly released footage showing the January 13 confrontation from a different angle.
WHAT’S GOING ON: The video shows Pretti screaming at ICE agents, calling one a “pepper spray b****” and another “f***ing trash” as they loaded into their SUVs to leave a neighborhood near a daycare. He kicked out a tail light on a federal vehicle. Multiple agents then tackled him while firing tear gas and pepper balls into the surrounding crowd of observers.
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Then they let him go. No arrest. He picked up his belongings and walked away.
Right-wing media is calling the footage “damning.” Megyn Kelly accused Pretti of “stalking, harassing and terrorizing” ICE.
But here’s what they’re not saying: nothing in this video justifies what happened eleven days later, when Border Patrol agents shot an unarmed man in the back after removing the gun from his holster.
THE DETAILS: The man who filmed the original clip, Minneapolis tax attorney Max Shapiro, told the Daily Mail he arrived after getting an alert from a parent group chat monitoring ICE activity near local daycares.
He said the situation had been “orderly and calm” until agents decided to escalate.
“I wouldn’t say it was an overly hostile interaction until they decided not to leave, and then turn it into a little bit more of a hostile situation,” Shapiro said.
Pretti’s family attorney, Steve Schleicher—the former federal prosecutor who secured Derek Chauvin’s conviction—wasn’t having the spin: “Nothing that happened a full week before could possibly have justified Alex’s killing at the hands of ICE on Jan 24.”
OF COURSE: The same people celebrating armed federal agents occupying American neighborhoods are now clutching pearls over a man yelling curse words and kicking a tail light. The same people who spent years screaming about government overreach think it’s totally normal for ICE to tackle civilians for property damage worth maybe $200—then shoot them dead eleven days later.
WHY IT MATTERS: This footage is being weaponized to retroactively justify Pretti’s killing. But being loud, being angry, even being obnoxious around federal agents isn’t a death sentence. Or at least it shouldn’t be.
The two Border Patrol agents who killed Pretti have been placed on administrative leave. They haven’t been identified. Meanwhile, the man who stood up to armed federal agents with nothing but his voice is dead.