ProPublica just did something the federal government has refused to do: name the two Customs and Border Protection agents who killed Alex Pretti.
The shooters are Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa, 43, and CBP officer Raymundo Gutierrez, 35, according to government records viewed by ProPublica. Both were assigned to Operation Metro Surge, the immigration enforcement dragnet that’s turned Minneapolis into a war zone since December. CBP has refused to release their names publicly—part of a broader pattern of federal agents operating behind masks with zero accountability while terrorizing American cities.
WHY THIS MATTERS: The federal government doesn’t want you to know who killed Alex Pretti. DHS declined to answer questions about the agents. The FBI declined to comment. Minneapolis officials say they “don’t have any information on the shooters.” Even Minnesota’s governor hasn’t been given their names. ProPublica got them anyway—because that’s what journalism is supposed to do when the government won’t.
And make no mistake: the stonewalling is deliberate. Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have accused the Justice Department of “covering up evidence” in both Pretti’s killing and the shooting death of Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three killed by a different immigration agent days earlier. State investigators say their federal counterparts are actively blocking them from investigating.
THE DETAILS: Ochoa joined CBP in 2018 after years of dreaming about working for Border Patrol, according to his ex-wife. By the time they divorced in 2021, he’d become a gun enthusiast with about 25 firearms. Gutierrez joined in 2014 and works on a special response team that conducts high-risk operations like police SWAT units. Both are from South Texas.
The shooting itself? Bystander video shows Pretti—a 37-year-old ICU nurse at a VA hospital—documenting federal agents with his phone. A masked agent appears to knock a woman to the ground. Pretti steps in to help her. An agent immediately pepper sprays his face. Then agents tackle him. Then they fire approximately 10 shots while onlookers scream.
The government’s story keeps shifting. Stephen Miller initially called Pretti “a would-be assassin.” Days later, he admitted CBP officers “may not have been following” protocol. Video analysis by the New York Times appears to show an agent removing Pretti’s legally owned handgun from his hip before the first shots were fired—contradicting claims he posed a threat.
OF COURSE: Gil Kerlikowske, a former CBP commissioner, told ProPublica the shooting might have been prevented entirely. Instead of immediately using pepper spray, “you can arrest the person,” he said. It’s part of a pattern of federal officers “jumping straight to use of force” in situations that could have been de-escalated.
BOTTOM LINE: The Trump administration has deployed masked, anonymous federal agents across American cities with permission to use violence and zero obligation to identify themselves—an “almost unheard of practice in law enforcement,” as ProPublica notes. The public’s only tool for accountability is knowing who these agents are. The government is hiding that information. Journalists are doing the government’s job for it. That’s not how this is supposed to work.