Shooting witness accounts added to legal cases challenging federal operation in Minnesota
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Details of Saturday’s fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by a federal agent in south Minneapolis — including two eyewitness accounts — are now part of the ongoing court cases seeking to curtail or end the surge of federal agents in Minnesota.
The two statements — which dispute the accounts of federal authorities — were filed in support of a lawsuit filed by six Minnesotans against the Department of Homeland Security after they were detained or arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minnesota for protesting or observing.
U.S. District Court Judge Katherine Menendez issued a temporary order limiting how federal agents can respond to protests in Minnesota, including barring agents from using nonlethal munitions — such as tear gas and pepper spray — on peaceful protesters and observers. That order was then suspended last week by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The eyewitness statements were added to the file late Saturday, seeking to have Menendez’s order reinstated. The names of the witnesses are redacted from the filings.
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One is from a resident of the Whittier neighborhood, where Pretti was killed. The person said they saw Pretti helping direct traffic around an ICE operation shortly before the shooting. The witness and Pretti both were taking video of the scene and were near two other observers.
The witness wrote that an ICE agent shoved one of the other observers to the ground, and pepper-sprayed both of them and Pretti in the face. Pretti tried to help the woman who was on the ground, the witness wrote, and was then pulled to the ground himself.
“I didn’t see him touch any of them — he wasn’t even turned toward them. It didn’t look like he was trying to resist, just trying to help the woman up. I didn’t see him with a gun. They threw him to the ground. Four or five agents had him on the ground and they just started shooting him. They shot him so many times,” the witness statement said.
“I don’t know why they shot him. He was only helping,” the witness wrote — adding that “I have read the statement from DHS about what happened and it is wrong. The man did not approach the agents with a gun. He approached them with a camera. He was just trying to help a woman get up and they took him to the ground.”
The second witness account is from a pediatrician who lives nearby and saw the shooting. They said they did not see Pretti attack the federal agents or brandish a weapon.
The witness ran outside, told federal agents they were a physician, and asked to assess Pretti’s condition. At first, the witness said, they refused — repeatedly asking to see their physician’s license, which they didn’t have with them. None of the agents were performing CPR, they wrote.
One agent then agreed to let the physician assess Pretti, patting down the doctor to make sure they didn’t have a weapon.
“I saw that the victim was lying on his side and was surrounded by several ICE agents. I was confused as to why the victim was on his side, because that is not standard practice when a victim has been shot,” the witness wrote. “Checking for a pulse and administering CPR is standard practice. Instead of doing either of those things, the ICE agents appeared to be counting his bullet wounds.”
The physician wrote that they saw at least three bullet wounds in Pretti’s back, another in his upper left chest and another possible wound on his neck. They could not feel a pulse, and began CPR until EMS personnel arrived shortly after.
Videos, news stories and other details about the shooting were also added to a separate federal lawsuit filed by the state of Minnesota, and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, against the federal government.
That lawsuit seeks to end the ongoing federal operation, arguing that ICE’s tactics are causing undue cost and disruption to communities.
The U.S. Department of Justice has argued that the suit is frivolous and lacks legal support. A hearing on that suit is set for Monday morning in Minneapolis.
