The Customs and Border Protection agency, under the Department of Homeland Security, is conducting its own internal probe into a shooting incident involving two officers who discharged their firearms at Alex Pretti.
In the nation’s capital, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Friday the initiation of a civil rights inquiry into the death of Alex Pretti, a resident of Minneapolis who was fatally shot by Border Patrol officers. This information was shared by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Blanche addressed the media during a press conference on a separate matter, where he fielded questions concerning Pretti’s demise and the Justice Department’s subsequent actions.
“This is a profoundly tragic situation,” Blanche remarked, adding that unraveling and examining such events requires considerable time.
He clarified that the civil rights investigation is distinct from the ongoing internal review by the Department of Homeland Security.
Pretti, who worked as an intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, was shot multiple times on the morning of Saturday, January 24. At the time, he was recording Border Patrol officers engaged in an immigration operation.
Pretti, 37, was carrying a handgun for which he had a legal permit and videos of the killing appear to show one officer remove the weapon before two others opened fire.
“We’re looking at everything that would shed light on that day and the days and weeks leading up to that day,” Blanche said on Friday.
A civil rights investigation is a formal process by which a government agency — in this case the FBI — looks into the circumstances surrounding an incident to determine if somebody’s civil rights had been abused. Often, the cases look at whether laws prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability have been violated.
When pressed about the chain of custody for some of the evidence related to the shooting, Blanche said he didn’t know if the FBI or DHS had access to the guns from the agents who killed Pretti. He also denied knowing who was in posession of Pretti’s phone, which he was using to record the federal agents when the confrontation began.
It is also unclear if Minnesotan officials will be involved with the DOJ’s investigation. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey have expressed frustration that state officials were being locked out of the investigations into the deaths of Pretti and the earlier death of Renee Good.
Blanche also declined to confirm if body camera footage from the agents involved in Pretti’s death would be released to the public.
“It depends,” Blanche said. “That is a decision that would have to be made by the folks leading that investigation.”
Pretti’s killing especially has led to criticism against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.
Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin confirmed Friday that the FBI will lead the Pretti probe and that HSI will support them. Separately, Customs and Border Protection, which is part of DHS, is doing its own internal investigation into the shooting, during which two officers opened fire on Pretti.
President Trump posted on social media that he would be sending Border Czar Tom Homan to manage the ICE operations in Minnesota after the killing, replacing Greg Bovino as the head of the administration’s operation there. The president later posted that he and Gov. Tim Walz had spoken and were on a “similar wavelength” about the future of federal agents in the state.
CNN reported the president was “personally unhappy” with the way his administration was being portrayed, with officials also upset over Secretary Noem’s labeling of Pretti as a “domestic terrorist.” At a White House briefing Monday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that was not President Trump’s personal position.
At Friday’s press conference, Blanche sidestepped questions about whether an earlier killing by federal agents, the death of Renee Good on Jan. 7, would also face a civil rights investigation.
“Cases are handled differently by this department depending on the circumstances,” Blanche said.
