The New York Times has produced another visual analysis (gift link) of a fatal shooting in Minneapolis by federal agents.
As with Renee Good on Jan. 7, the killing of Alex Jeffrey Pretti appears to be entirely unjustified. Preliminary statements from government officials that Pretti was approaching agents with a gun were false. If they didn’t know what they were saying was untrue at the time, they knew shortly thereafter.
Based on what we’ve learned, Pretti, a registered nurse, was video-recording agents while walking toward them as they went about their business of terrorizing the populace. An agent pepper-sprayed a woman, and Pretti got between her and the agent in an attempt to shield her. He was holding up his phone with one hand; his other hand was empty.
Agents then pepper-sprayed him and took him to the pavement. At that point, an agent took Pretti’s handgun and walked away. In Minnesota it is legal to carry a gun in public, and Pretti had a valid license. Again, he had not touched his gun; rather, an agent saw it and removed it from him.
Then, with Pretti’s gun removed and down on the pavement, agents began shooting him, firing 10 shots. It has all the appearances of the deliberate execution of an unarmed man — an act of state-sponsored terrorism. By the time Stephen Miller took to Twitter/X on Saturday afternoon and posted, “An assassin tried to murder federal agents,” he knew he was lying.
If you’re looking to catch up, Heather Cox Richardson has pulled together all the various strands, including efforts by Minnesota state investigators to preserve the crime scene and a letter from Attorney General Pam Bondi to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz that can only be described as attempted extortion.
Minneapolis is under siege. And if you’re thinking, well, that’s just one city, I’ll close by paraphrasing a quote that is often attributed to the science-fiction writer William Gibson: Fascism has arrived — it’s just not evenly distributed yet.
Update: A little after 2:30 p.m., I changed the headline from “suggests that Alex Pretti was executed” to “shows that Alex Pretti was executed.” As the hours go by, the truth of what happened is becoming clearer. The Times itself is now asserting, “Videos directly contradict descriptions of the encounter by administration officials.”
Correction: Updated to correct Alex Pretti’s name.
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