Criminal Justice professor and former cop say there was no threat in Pretti shooting
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Peter Moskos is a John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor and former cop. Moskos sat down with NPR’s Steve Inskeep to watch a video of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti second by second to discuss what went wrong when a federal agent shot and killed the nurse in Minneapolis.
Moskos said he found the federal agents tactics “shockingly bad.” He is unsure why they approached, but said that even if they had a reason, how they went about things was a problem.
“When you outnumber someone you’re trying to arrest, I mean, if you got four or five officers there, it shouldn’t be a problem,” he said. “It’s somewhat painful to watch as a former police officer.”
The agent shot Pretti multiple times, even after he was on the ground not moving.
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“You’re shooting at a dead guy who doesn't have a gun anymore. So what are you shooting at?” He said. “How is this guy a threat?”
Immediately after this shooting, the Department of Homeland Security declared that Pretti was a domestic terrorist. They also said that they knew what happened.
The Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said he had brandished a weapon, something Moskos calls “a lie.”
“They know it's a lie, because if he wanted to inflict ‘maximum damage,’ he could have done so. He clearly was not out there to kill anybody,” he said. “The government is lying to us and telling us not to believe our lying eyes, in a very Orwellian sense that also can contribute to a culture of impunity among these federal officers.”
Moskos said this was something he anticipated after the fatal shooting of Renee Macklin Good.
“We have mass, seemingly unaccountable, armed federal law enforcement who are making horrible tactical choices and killing people.”
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