Overview
- Multiple bystander videos show Pretti holding a phone, being pepper-sprayed, pinned, and then shot multiple times after an agent removed a handgun from his waistband, contradicting initial DHS claims that he approached officers with a drawn weapon.
- Internal dissent has erupted within DHS over early statements portraying Pretti as a would-be attacker, and the White House has shifted posture by halting categorical justifications, dispatching border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota, and moving Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino out of Minneapolis.
- ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations is leading the probe in a move current and former officials describe as unusual, while Minnesota authorities say they were blocked from the scene until a federal court issued an emergency preservation order.
- Officials and reporting identify Pretti as a U.S. citizen, a Minneapolis VA ICU nurse, and a licensed concealed-carry owner with no known criminal record, and no publicly reviewed footage shows him brandishing a weapon before the gunfire.
- New reporting indicates Pretti suffered a broken rib in an earlier clash with federal agents days before the shooting, and bipartisan figures are now calling for independent investigations and potential oversight of DHS operations in Minnesota.