Close-up videos of the fatal Minneapolis shooting showed protester Alex Jeffrey Pretti was armed with a gun — with the agent who fired the more than a dozen shots clearly reacting to something that alarmed him amid the chaos.
It’s unclear if Pretti had drawn the weapon and was immediately disarmed, if an officer had pulled it from his clothing or if he was in the process of pulling it out when a separate federal officer was seen taking it from the 37-year-old as he was pinned to the ground.
Videos of the incident show officers shouting “he’s got a gun,” as the unidentified agent reached into Pretti’s waistband to retrieve the weapon.
At one point an officer in gray coat is seen emerging from the melee with the gun, which officials said was a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun. According to close up video of that moment, as the officer holds the gun, the gun’s slide moves, meaning it may have fired, causing a loud noise of a gunshot shortly before other officer fired at Pretti.
In various videos,the agent who fired the fatal shots could be seen shooting the armed protester at close range, then pumping at least 9 more rounds into his body as Pretti lay motionless on the ground.
Moments before the fatal incident, one video showed Pretti gripping his phone while helping a woman who was pushed to the ground by an immigration agent, who relentlessly sprayed the pair with tear gas.
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A hoard of federal officers pulled him away from the woman and brought him to the ground, where Pretti struggled on his hands and knees for several seconds before an agent wearing a gray jacket appeared to seize his gun — and the fatal shots rang out moments later.
The Department of Homeland Security said Pretti had approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun as they were conducting a “targeted” arrest.
“The officers attempted to disarm this individual, but the armed suspect reacted violently,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said at a press conference Saturday night.
“Fearing for his life and for the lives of his fellow officers around him, an agent fired defensive shots. Medics were on the scene immediately and attempted to deliver medical aid to the subject, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.”
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