By Hannah Saunders
Angry and heartbroken residents of Minneapolis protested another fatal shooting by a federal agent on January 24. That morning, 37-year-old Alex Pretti was filming a handful of Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents when they swarmed him, pepper sprayed him, then proceeded to beat and shoot him multiple times. Earlier this month, ICE agent Jonathan Ross murdered Renee Nicole Good, 37, and shot a Venezuelan man in the leg on January 14. And one protester from today’s events is accused of biting off the finger of a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agent.
Pretti worked as a registered ICU nurse at the Minnesota Veterans Affairs Health Care System. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claims that Pretti charged officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun and the shooter was in fear for his life, but video footage— which there are several angles of— shows a different story.
As several agents held Pretti to the ice-cold ground, beating and pistol-whipping him, one agent can be seen pulling Pretti’s handgun from his body. Another agent watched this, and proceeded to shoot Pretti a handful of times, even when he laid frozen on the concrete. People in Minnesota with carry permits are allowed to have guns on them, and residents have been pushing back against attacks on its communities for weeks.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said hundreds of protesters went to the scene of the murder and allegedly assaulted law enforcement officers, like by throwing ice at them.
“A rampant assault began and even an HSI officer agent’s finger was bitten off,” Noem said.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of DHS, posted on X, which included pictures of the suspects and finger in a plastic container, and wrote: “In Minneapolis, these rioters attacked our law enforcement officer and one of them bit off our HSI officer’s finger. He will lose his finger.”
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi also took to X to announce that the alleged finger-biter was arrested and taken into custody.
“I have directed my federal prosecutors to file charges for this HEINOUS assault on our brave law enforcement officer,” Bondi wrote.
Note: The Trump Administration has been posting AI images. TtS cannot verify if these images released by McLaughlin are authentic or artificial.
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