Authorities believe two federal officers fired their weapons in the shooting that killed Alex Pretti as he was wrestled to the ground in Minneapolis, according to a preliminary Homeland Security report to Congress.
The report obtained by POLITICO provides the government’s most detailed account yet of the killing of the 37-year-old Pretti, whose death has sparked widespread outrage and prompted the government to modify its immigration enforcement campaign in Minnesota.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Professional Responsibility said in the report that two of its officers fired after another officer on the scene yelled “He’s got a gun” while restraining Pretti on the snowy street.
Video from bystanders showed officers had already taken the gun from Pretti, an ICU nurse with a permit to carry a concealed weapon, when he was shot. He appeared to be attempting to intercede in a confrontation between agents and a woman who was protesting immigration operations and when the officers grabbed him and forced him to the ground.
The new details come as the Trump administration scrambles to respond to intense blowback over the killings of Pretti and Renee Good, a Minneapolis woman who was killed by a federal immigration officer earlier in January. Some Republican lawmakers have declined to offer their support for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s handling of the shootings.
Earlier on Tuesday, President Donald Trump suggested Pretti shouldn’t have been armed when confronting immigration agents. Other administration officials have indicated that Pretti risked provoking the officers by carrying a weapon.
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