Federal Officers Placed on Leave After Fatal Shooting of Nurse Alex Pretti

Two federal officers were placed on administrative leave Tuesday after a preliminary government review found both fired their weapons in the fatal shooting of Minnesota ICU nurse Alex Jeffrey Pretti during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis on January 24. Pretti, 37, a licensed gun owner with no criminal record beyond traffic violations, was shot multiple times after being tackled by agents on a South Minneapolis street, sparking protests, political backlash and multiple overlapping investigations cnn +1.

Pretti was killed during “Operation Metro Surge,” a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) push that brought Border Patrol and other federal immigration officers into Minneapolis neighborhoods beginning in December. Officials initially claimed he “approached” agents with a handgun, but bystander videos and a DHS report to Congress later showed Pretti holding a phone before officers rushed, pinned him to the ground and opened fire within seconds, even as another agent appeared to have already seized his firearm washingtonpost +1. His parents described him as a “kindhearted” VA nurse who “wanted to help people,” and local police confirmed he held a valid permit to carry cnn.

Conflicting Narratives and Evidence Gaps

A preliminary Customs and Border Protection (CBP) timeline submitted to Congress said an agent shouted “He’s got a gun!” several times during a struggle with Pretti; roughly five seconds later, a Border Patrol agent and a CBP officer fired their Glock pistols, killing him thehill. The same report did not state that Pretti brandished his weapon, contradicting early DHS and White House characterizations that he had threatened agents, and clashing with social media posts by senior administration officials who labeled him an “assassin” and “domestic terrorist” within hours of his death thehill +1.

CNN’s analysis of multiple videos appeared to show an officer removing a handgun from Pretti’s waistband moments before shots were fired, raising questions about why lethal force was used if the weapon had already been taken away washingtonpost. DHS now says investigators are reviewing body‑camera footage from “multiple angles,” while CBP’s internal affairs office and ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations unit lead federal inquiries, an arrangement civil‑rights advocates criticize as too insular for a case that may hinge on whether agents followed basic use‑of‑force and evidence‑handling protocols nbcnews +1.

Local Backlash and Political Fallout

The shooting, the second killing of a Minnesota resident by federal immigration agents this month, intensified scrutiny of the federal surge and prompted nightly protests and vigils at the intersection where Pretti was shot cnn +1. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz condemned early federal accounts as “nonsense” and demanded that immigration agents leave the state, while Minneapolis officials went to court with the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to secure a temporary restraining order barring federal authorities from destroying or altering evidence cnn +1.

Nationally, the case opened a new rift over gun rights and federal power. Gun‑rights groups stressed that Pretti’s decision to carry was lawful—“You absolutely can walk around with a gun, and you absolutely can peacefully protest while armed,” a spokesman for Gun Owners of America said—while President Donald Trump faulted Pretti for carrying at all, a stance that surprised longtime allies in the gun lobby usatoday +1. Members of both parties in Congress have called the killing a “tragedy that should never have happened” and pressed for independent oversight of DHS’s role in Minneapolis cbsnews.

The Bigger Picture

The Pretti case has quickly become a test of public trust in federal law enforcement and in the government’s ability to police its own agents amid aggressive immigration crackdowns far from the border. With key questions unresolved—what agents knew about the gun at the moment they fired, how evidence such as Pretti’s firearm was handled afterward, and whether body‑cam footage supports their account—investigators face pressure from local officials, civil‑liberties groups and national politicians to release footage and findings swiftly, even as the two officers remain off the street and Minneapolis braces for what those answers might set in motion nbcnews +2.