There’s a popular saying that the camera never lies.

Yet, how can it be that people viewing multiple recordings of the same heartbreaking incident can arrive at completely opposing interpretations?

This conundrum surfaced with the shooting of Renee Good, 37, by an ICE officer in Minneapolis on January 7. A similar situation has arisen again following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, also 37, by a Border Patrol agent just over a mile away from the previous event.

Pretti’s demise on Saturday was documented by at least three different onlookers using their phones, creating a near-perfect triangular perspective with the incident at the core.

In a conversation with the Daily Mail, several experts who scrutinized the footage tackled pressing questions, such as whether Pretti’s firearm misfired and what circumstances might have justified the use of deadly force.

In the wake of Pretti’s death, the Trump administration labeled him a ‘domestic terrorist’ who was shot in self-defense by a federal officer. In contrast, Democratic leaders and Pretti’s family vehemently refuted this claim as a ‘sickening lie,’ arguing he was killed without justification.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem set out the federal government’s case at a news conference. She said Pretti was armed and ‘brandishing,’ that he approached the officers and when they attempted to disarm him, he ‘reacted violently.’

An agent fearing for his life, and those of the agents around him, fired defensive shots, Noem said, adding that Pretti had ‘committed an act of domestic terrorism.’ Bolstering that argument, President Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller called Pretti ‘a would-be assassin.’

Minnesota’s state government disagrees.

Governor Tim Walz called Noem’s version of events ‘nonsense’ and added: ‘Thank God we have video… I’ve seen the videos, from several angles, and it’s sickening.’

What Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey saw in the videos was ‘more than six masked agents pummeling one of our constituents, shooting him to death.’

Pretti’s family said the footage showed their son, an ICU nurse at a veterans’ hospital and a licensed gun carrier, being ‘attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs.’

So what really happened outside Glam Doll Donuts in Minneapolis?

None of the three bystanders who took the most widely circulated videos were more than the width of a street away, and one was significantly closer, at just a few yards distance. They were standing on the sidewalk Pretti was facing as he was shot.

What is not in dispute is that, around 9am, Border Patrol officers had detained an Ecuadorian illegal immigrant in a targeted operation and that man was on the ground. 

About 50 seconds before he was shot, Pretti was captured on video standing in the street and filming, holding his phone up and moving slowly across the road toward where the officers had detained the suspect.

Two civilians, who were bundled up in warm clothing but appear appeared to be female, were seemingly talking to the agents. About 20 seconds later an agent pushed the women away and across to the other side of the street, at one point pushing Pretti, too, and he appeared to exchange words with the officer.

As they reached the other side of the road, outside the donut shop, Pretti moved between the agent and the two women. The agent shoved one of the women and she fell on to the sidewalk next to a parked white car.

At the same time, Pretti placed his left arm horizontally between the agent and the falling woman, making contact with the agent’s chest.

The agent then pepper sprayed him, with Pretti raising is left arm, the hand of his palm open to protect from the substance. His phone was in his right hand.

Pretti then turned away and the agent continued to pepper spray him from behind, before other agents joined him in wrestling Pretti to the ground.

A mele ensued in which seven agents were involved, and it lasted about 20 seconds. During that time, the second woman dragged the fallen woman away.

Pretti was hit several times by agents, including one wielding a metal can, as they tried to bring his arms behind his back, and he struggled.

The best view of the ensuing crucial seconds comes from the video taken on the sidewalk Pretti is facing, near the donut shop.

Protesters, as they routinely do, were trying to disrupt the Border Patrol operation by sounding high-pitched whistles, so words shouted by the officers were hard to make out.

About two seconds before the first shot, what appeared to be the voice of an agent could be heard shouting, but what he said was unclear. An agent in a black hat, who appeared to be looking at Pretti’s right hip area, then drew his gun.

Then, a split second later, the yelling voice could be heard shouting ‘gun…gun…’

An officer in a gray top removed the gun from Pretti’s waistband and backed away. Video footage from the other side of the street showed that officer running off with Pretti’s gun.

Within a split second of the gun being removed, the officer in the black hat opened fire, and then moved behind Pretti, continuing to shoot at his back.

One gun expert told the Daily Mail: ‘What I can see from the video, the most important aspect of it to me, is that he [Pretti] is clearly disarmed before he’s shot.

‘While the video clearly shows that he did have a firearm, he does not appear to reach for the firearm. I don’t know that we have an entirely clear view of every single second of where his hands are at all times, but they’re pretty clear views. For most of the time, he does not appear to reach for his gun.’

He said the agent in gray removing Pretti’s gun ‘clearly happens before the first shot is taken.’

The videos show it was about a second from the shout of ‘gun…gun…’ to the first shot being fired.

It was not possible to see if the officer in the black hat fired the first shot because at the moment the bang was heard, Pretti was between that officer’s gun and the camera.

As the second shot was heard, the recoil of the gun belonging to the officer in the black hat was visible as he pointed it at Pretti’s back. As the agents then scattered backwards, the one in the black hat fired more shots, and the agent who had initially pepper sprayed Pretti also opened fire.

At least ten shots in all appeared to have been fired in the five seconds after the first one.

The firearms expert said the follow-on shots as the officers moved away would ultimately be be the ‘hardest to justify.’

‘It happens in relatively quick succession, but perhaps longer than is legally justified and police are supposed to,’ he said.

‘Anyone who’s shooting using deadly force against somebody is supposed to be able to justify every single shot they take. So, I think that’s going to be a very closely scrutinized aspect.

‘All of the shots are going to be difficult to justify because he [Pretti] was unarmed when the shooting actually occurred. There may be some other factors that the agents can point to and claim reasonable fear for their lives, or the lives of others, which is going to be one of the primary legal standards.

‘You will see officers claim fear for their life. It’s a chaotic situation. Somebody yells out that there’s a gun. I’m sure that there will be a claim that that is enough to justify a shooting.’

One key question not answered conclusively on the videos, and which remains a mystery, was which weapon the first shot came from.

The possibility remained open that it could have been a misfire from Pretti’s gun as the agent in gray removed it and ran away, which then triggered the officer in the black hat to open fire.

Experts said the weapon does not generally have an external manual safety that would be engaged or disengaged by a thumb or fingers, and has a history of being discharged accidentally.

A firearms expert told the Daily Mail: ‘The SIG Sauer P320, without the thumb safety, is in my mind, without question, the most dangerous freaking gun that has ever been produced by anyone, anywhere, at any time.

‘It’s like walking around with a great big John Wayne revolver, loaded, with a hammer cocked all the way back, sitting in your holster. Anything touches that trigger, it goes… bang. It’s just that simple.

‘They don’t have a safety on the frame. They don’t have a safety in the grip. They have a long, nasty habit of being dropped and going off.’

He added that they could also go off when just being carried.

Rob Dobar, a lawyer for the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, added: ‘I believe it’s highly likely the first shot was a negligent discharge from the agent in the gray jacket after he removed the Sig P320 from Pretti’s holster while exiting the scene.’

Circumstantial evidence cited by internet sleuths, which it was not possible to verify, included suggestions that grainy slowed-down video showed the slide on Pretti’s gun moving backward, just after the officer in gray grabbed it, indicating a discharge.  

Other internet commentators suggested that, at the same time, a mark on the road appeared which could have been made by a the bullet from a misfire.

However, a gun expert told the Daily Mail: ‘I would say its extremely unlikely that the gun fired on its own, if in fact, Pretti’s gun did fire. I’ve seen videos and close-ups. They’re all a bit blurry in my eye to really confirm.

‘If it did happen, my best guess would be that he [the agent in gray] probably pulled the trigger, rather than the gun going off on its own.

‘Usually, a gun is not going to go off on its own, especially if someone’s holding it in their hand. I’m not convinced that that’s what the video shows. But when the first shot is taken the [black-hatted] agent’s gun is out of view, out of view, so I can’t say 100 percent where that first shot came from.’

The expert said that the Department of Homeland Security would be able to tell, from residue and shell casings, whether Pretti’s gun had been fired.

If it was, it would be ‘surprising’ that they had not made that information public.

The incident has brought the history of the Sig Sauer P320 under the spotlight. The weapon is widely used by law enforcement, including by ICE.

Sig Sauer has faced more than 100 lawsuits in recent years over allegations that it is vulnerable to rogue discharges.

Those cases have included law enforcement officers claiming they were shot in the foot or leg by their own weapons when they were holstered, not just incidents when they were dropped.

The gun company has vehemently denied there is any problem with the weapon, and that it ‘cannot, under any circumstances, discharge without the trigger first being moved to the rear.’

Part of the backlash against the weapon came after Airman Brayden Lovan, 21, died at a Wyoming air base on July 20, 2024.

It prompted Air Force Global Strike Command to suspend use of the weapon at nuclear weapons sites for a month. Several police departments also paused their use.

However, the Air Force later determined that they were safe to carry.

Sig Sauer has rejected lawsuits as ‘nothing more than individuals seeking to profit or avoid personal responsibility.

Ultimately, only an analysis of Pretti’s gun will be able to establish if there was a misfire.

He appeared to have been armed with a version of the weapon called the P320 AXG Combat, which costs over $1,000.

A shooting incident expert who has testified in numerous trials, told the Daily Mail the definitive answers would have to wait for Pretti’s autopsy, which would show, among other things, angles from which the shots were fired.

But some people’s minds would never be changed by arguments based on videos, he added.

‘It feels like sometimes we accept science and what our eyes tell us, and sometimes people just won’t accept it, no matter what you know, even if it’s what happened.’