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   What Trump officials claimed about Alex Pretti -- and what the evidence   
   actually shows   
   By Daniel Dale   
   CNN.com   
   Jan. 25, 2026   
   6:00 pm EST   
   Updated 2 hr ago   
      
   Top officials in President Donald Trump's administration have responded   
   to the killing of Alex Pretti by the Border Patrol in Minneapolis on   
   Saturday with a torrent of claims that are either contradicted by video   
   footage or unsupported by any evidence presented so far.   
      
     * Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed Pretti "attacked"   
   officers, an assertion echoed by FBI Director Kash Patel, but no   
   footage available as of Sunday afternoon shows Pretti committing any   
   attack.   
      
     * Noem claimed Pretti was "brandishing" a gun, but no available   
   footage shows Pretti even holding a weapon in his hand at the scene; a   
   concealed gun appeared to be taken from his waistband area by a federal   
   agent moments before he was shot.   
      
     * White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller referred to Pretti   
   as "an assassin" who "tried to murder federal agents," Vice President   
   JD Vance reposted this claim, and Border Patrol commander Gregory   
   Bovino (and the Department of Homeland Security in a social media post)   
   said it "looks like" Pretti "wanted to do maximum damage and massacre   
   law enforcement." But nobody has shown any evidence that Pretti sought   
   to kill anyone, let alone perpetrate a massacre.   
      
     * Patel suggested that Pretti broke the law by carrying a concealed   
   gun at a protest, but the Minneapolis police chief said Pretti had a   
   permit to carry the gun and was allowed to have it on him as he was   
   protesting in a public place.   
      
   Pretti's parents issued a statement on Saturday saying, "The sickening   
   lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and   
   disgusting." And in television interviews on Sunday, the administration   
   declined to repeat some of its most incendiary allegations from   
   Saturday about Pretti, who was a registered nurse in an intensive care   
   unit at a Veterans Affairs facility.   
      
   Here is a look at how the Trump team's shifting rhetoric squares with   
   what is known about Pretti and the circumstances around his death.   
      
   *** The administration claimed that Pretti 'attacked' officers. But   
   videos don't show Pretti committing any attack ***   
      
   Noem told reporters Saturday: "This individual impeded the law   
   enforcement officers and attacked them," repeating the phrase "attacked   
   them" moments later for emphasis. When Patel was asked about the   
   shooting in a Sunday interview on Fox News, he responded, "You do not   
   get to attack law enforcement officials in this country without any   
   repercussions."   
      
   No video of the incident available as of Sunday afternoon showed Pretti   
   attacking officers.   
      
   Various footage shows him directing traffic at the site of an   
   immigration enforcement operation, yelling at a federal agent who was   
   interacting with other bystanders to "not push them into the traffic,"   
   holding up a cell phone appearing to record agents, and stepping in   
   front of an agent to intervene as the agent shoved a woman to the   
   ground; Pretti appeared to make momentary contact with the agent with   
   his right arm and left hand.   
      
   The agent then sprayed him with a chemical irritant and dragged him to   
   the ground; other officers joined in the confrontation as Pretti   
   appeared to resist, and one agent appeared to strike him repeatedly as   
   he was on the ground.   
      
   In a Sunday interview with CNN's Dana Bash, Bovino claimed Pretti   
   "assaulted federal officers." But when Bash pressed Bovino to explain   
   what moment in the video showed Pretti committing such an assault,   
   Bovino would not provide any specifics.   
      
   Noem used noticeably softer language in a Fox News interview on Sunday   
   morning than she had Saturday. This time, instead of saying Pretti   
   "attacked" law enforcement, she said Pretti was "laying hands on law   
   enforcement."   
      
   *** Videos contradict Noem's Saturday suggestion that Pretti was   
   'brandishing' a gun - and other officials wouldn't repeat that claim on   
   Sunday ***   
      
   Noem claimed Saturday that Pretti "had a weapon on him, and multiple -   
   dozens - of rounds of ammunition; wishing to inflict harm on these   
   officers, coming, brandishing like that."   
      
   Temporarily leaving aside the claim about Pretti's supposed intention   
   to inflict harm, which we'll address below, Noem's claim that Pretti   
   was "brandishing" a gun is contradicted by videos of the incident. At   
   no point in the available footage was Pretti holding a gun in his hand,   
   let alone waving it or trying to intimidate someone with it.   
      
   "I don't have any evidence that I've seen that suggests that the weapon   
   was brandished," Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said in a Sunday   
   interview on CBS.   
      
   Footage taken of Pretti walking around prior to the shooting showed him   
   carrying a cell phone in one hand and nothing in the other. Subsequent   
   footage appears to show a federal agent removing a gun from Pretti's   
   waistband area when Pretti was on the ground just moments before being   
   shot.   
      
   Notably, administration officials would not repeat or defend Noem's   
   "brandishing" claim in interviews on Sunday morning.   
      
   When Patel was asked on Fox how Pretti was supposedly using the gun to   
   threaten Border Patrol given that Pretti was only holding a phone,   
   Patel did not explain, saying he would defer to "DHS and the   
   prosecutors - because they are the ones investigating that case." Asked   
   in an interview on NBC whether Pretti brandished a gun at any point,   
   Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche also declined to make a firm   
   comment, saying "there is obviously an investigation that's ongoing."   
      
   *** The administration has provided no evidence for its claims Pretti   
   was 'an assassin' or planned to 'massacre' officers ***   
      
   Top administration officials tried Saturday to portray Pretti as a   
   would-be mass murderer.   
      
   In a Saturday post on social media platform X, Miller referred to   
   Pretti as "an assassin" who "tried to murder federal agents." Miller's   
   comment - a reply to a Democratic senator who called for ICE to leave   
   Minneapolis and for Congress to refuse to fund ICE in its current form   
   - was reposted by Vance.   
      
   Bovino claimed to reporters, "This looks like a situation where an   
   individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement;"   
   the Department of Homeland Security used the same language in a post on   
   X. And Noem similarly told reporters: "This looks like a situation   
   where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on   
   individuals and to kill law enforcement."   
      
   But nobody has presented evidence that Pretti was trying to assassinate   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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