Smear Campaign Against Slain Minneapolis Man Contradicted By Public Evidence, Days After Fatal Immigration Officer Shooting
Within just minutes after 37-year-old Alex Pretti was shot and killed by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis on Saturday, the Trump administration—backed by a network of right-wing influencers—launched a coordinated smear campaign against the deceased, labeling him a “terrorist” and a “lunatic” before any formal investigation could be completed.
Pretti, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen and registered nurse employed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, was killed during an encounter with a team of federal immigration agents, a colleague confirmed to The Guardian. Footage captured by a nearby bystander confirms Pretti was intervening to help a woman who had just been pepper sprayed by an agent when law enforcement tackled him to the ground.
Pretti’s killing came just 17 days after another 37-year-old American, Renee Nicole Good—a mother of three—was shot and killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jonathan Ross.
Speaking at a Saturday press conference, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara noted that key details surrounding the events leading up to Pretti’s fatal confrontation were still limited. But at a separate briefing, Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol commander in charge of federal operations in the Minneapolis area, claimed he already had a complete, verified assessment of what unfolded.
Bovino claimed Pretti approached officers carrying a 9mm handgun, refused to surrender the weapon, and was shot in what the commander called an unambiguous case of self-defense. He further alleged Pretti carried two extra loaded magazines, had no identification on him, and planned to “massacre law enforcement,” adding that the agent who fired the fatal shot had completed extensive tactical training.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) echoed Bovino’s claims in a post on X that had been viewed more than 17 million times as of this article’s publication. Right-wing media outlets repeated the unconfirmed narrative without question: for example, conservative outlet The Post Millennial published a piece headlined, “Armed agitator Alex Pretti appeared to want 'maximum damage' and to 'massacre' law enforcement when shot by BP in Minnesota.”
Core Official Claims Contradicted By Public Evidence
Key parts of the federal government’s narrative are directly contradicted by publicly available evidence.
Multiple videos shared on social media in the immediate aftermath of the shooting show no indication Pretti had a visible gun when officers moved to detain him. Independent analyses from The New York Times and open-source investigation group Bellingcat confirmed that when federal agents approached Pretti and forced him to the ground, he was clearly holding a cell phone, not a firearm.
On his Truth Social platform, former President and current President Donald Trump weighed in, pinning blame for the shooting on Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. “The Mayor and the Governor are inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric,” Trump wrote, alongside an image of the gun DHS claims Pretti carried the day he was killed.
Vice President JD Vance echoed Trump’s criticism of Minnesota’s local leadership, sharing a screenshot of Trump’s Truth Social post to X and writing: “When I visited Minnesota, what the ICE agents wanted more than anything was to work with local law enforcement so that situations on the ground didn't get out of hand. The local leadership in Minnesota has so far refused to answer those requests.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also piled on criticism of Frey and Walz in an X post, while also attacking the victim: “Shame on the leadership of Minnesota—and the lunatics in the street. ICE > MN.”
Governor Walz dismissed the federal government’s narrative as “nonsense” during his own press conference. “Minnesota’s justice system will have the last word” on Pretti’s killing, Walz said, adding that “the federal government cannot be trusted with this investigation.”
Stephen Miller, Trump’s homeland security adviser, doubled down on the attacks in a pair of social media posts, labeling Pretti an “assassin” and a “terrorist.”
The Trump administration’s smear campaign against Pretti was quickly amplified by supporters across social media. Nick Sortor, one of several right-wing influencers stationed in Minneapolis to cover ICE’s ongoing operations there, falsely claimed Pretti was an “illegal alien” and asserted he “was armed with a gun and attempted to PULL IT on agents as he was being apprehended.” Multiple family members have confirmed Pretti was a U.S.-born citizen from Illinois with no prior criminal record, and video evidence directly contradicts Sortor’s false claims.
Jack Posobiec, a right-wing influencer with close ties to the Trump White House, wrote on X, referencing footage of the shooting: “It is most certainly illegal to disrupt federal law enforcement operations and doing so while armed is not only unlawful, it is a good way to get shot.”
For his part, Minneapolis Police Chief O’Hara has clarified that Pretti was “a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry” in the state of Minnesota.
Despite the unified push of Trump administration talking points, not all figures on the right accepted the official narrative. Right-wing podcaster Tim Pool called Pretti “a radicalized leftist” in an X post without offering any evidence to back the claim, but he pushed back on Bovino’s allegation that Pretti planned to kill multiple law enforcement officers: “There's no reason to think he was trying to massacre LEOs,” Pool wrote.
Dave Smith, a comedian who endorsed Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, went even further, suggesting in an X post that the killing of a second U.S. citizen by federal immigration agents in just over two weeks could become a tipping point even for Trump’s own base.
“I’m an immigration restrictionist. I believe that we have the right to remove any and all people who entered our country illegally,” Smith wrote. “Also, ICE is out of fucking control. A bunch of pussies, drunk on power going around intentionally escalating violent interactions and intimidating US citizens.”
