The Truth Behind the 30 Most Controversial Seconds: The Moment ICU Nurse Alex Jeffrey Pretti Was Seen Holding a Gun and Aiming It Toward a Federal Agent.
Newly surfaced footage and frame-by-frame analysis have dragged one brief, chaotic instant into the center of a national firestorm. In the crush of bodies and shouted commands, video appears to show Pretti armed — a detail that complicates the narrative and forces a hard look at what agents perceived in real time as tensions spiked.
But those seconds remain fiercely disputed. Was the weapon actively brandished, or was the scene already spiraling out of control? With conflicting accounts, incomplete angles, and unanswered questions about timing and threat perception, the truth of that moment is proving far more complex than early headlines suggested.
Close-up videos of the fatal Minneapolis shooting showed protester Alex Jeffrey Pretti was armed with a gun — with the agent who fired the more than a dozen shots clearly reacting to something that alarmed him amid the chaos.
It’s unclear if Pretti had drawn the weapon and was immediately disarmed, if an officer had pulled it from his clothing or if he was in the process of pulling it out when a separate federal officer was seen taking it from the 37-year-old as he was pinned to the ground.
Videos of the incident show officers shouting “he’s got a gun,” as the unidentified agent reached into Pretti’s waistband to retrieve the weapon.
At one point an officer is seen emerging from the melee with the gun, which officials said was a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun.
New closeup video showed the events right before federal agents fatally shot an armed man in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The agent who fired the fatal shots could be seen in various videos shooting the armed protester at close range, then pumping at least 9 more rounds into his body as Pretti lay motionless on the ground.
Moments before the fatal incident, one video showed Pretti gripping his phone while helping a woman who was pushed to the ground by an immigration agent, who relentlessly sprayed the pair with tear gas.
A hoard of federal officers pulled him away from the woman and brought him to the ground, where Pretti struggled on his hands and knees for several seconds before an agent wearing a gray jacket appeared to seize his gun — and the fatal shots rang out moments later.
The Department of Homeland Security said Pretti had approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun as they were conducting a “targeted” arrest.
“The officers attempted to disarm this individual, but the armed suspect reacted violently,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said at a press conference Saturday night.
“Fearing for his life and for the lives of his fellow officers around him, an agent fired defensive shots. Medics were on the scene immediately and attempted to deliver medical aid to the subject, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.”
