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Federal agents shot and killed a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, at about 9 a.m. Central time on Saturday morning. A video shared with The New York Times by an eyewitness and her lawyer, as well as other video footage posted on social media, documents the violent scene, where agents appear to fire at least 10 shots in a span of only five seconds.<\/p>\n
The footage seems to contradict the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s account of the event, which the agency said began after the victim approached the federal agents with a handgun and the intent to \u201cmassacre\u201d them.<\/p>\n
Still from video shared with The Times.<\/span> The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n Videos show a small group of civilians standing in the middle of a street where a person has recently been detained on the ground; the civilians are speaking to federal agents. Mr. Pretti appears to be filming the scene, and he walks closer to the federal agents while holding his phone.<\/p>\n Still from video by Philophon via Reddit.<\/span> The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n Leading up to this moment, one agent shoved two people away from a D.H.S. vehicle and into the street. Mr. Pretti attempted to put himself between the D.H.S. agent and the two civilians, and the agent pushed one of them to the ground. The video shows the same agent squirting pepper spray in the direction of Mr. Pretti\u2019s face. (This agent will later fire shots at Mr. Pretti.)<\/p>\n Mr. Pretti is holding his phone in one hand, and he holds his other hand up to protect against the spray.<\/p>\n Still from video by witness shared with The Times.<\/span> The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n Several agents grab at Mr. Pretti, who is still holding his phone. Additional agents approach and attempt to pin Mr. Pretti to the ground.<\/p>\n Still from video by Philophon via Reddit.<\/span> The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n Mr. Pretti is surrounded by a group of seven agents, some of whom have wrestled him to the ground. One of the agents, who wears a gray coat, begins to approach the fray with empty hands and grabs at Mr. Pretti, while the other agents hold him down on his knees. At the same time, another agent strikes Mr. Pretti repeatedly with a pepper spray canister.<\/p>\n Still from video shared with The Times.<\/span> The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n The agent in the gray coat appears to pull a gun from near Mr. Pretti\u2019s right hip. He then begins to move away from the skirmish with the recovered weapon.<\/p>\n At the same time, another agent unholsters his firearm and points it at Mr. Pretti\u2019s back.<\/p>\n Still from witness video via Associated Press.<\/span> The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n The agent in the gray coat removes the weapon, which matches the profile of a gun D.H.S. says belonged to Mr. Pretti, from the scene. Then, while Mr. Pretti is on his knees and restrained, the agent standing directly above him appears to fire one shot at Mr. Pretti at close range. He immediately fires three additional shots.<\/p>\n Still from video shared with The Times.<\/span> The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n Several agents have moved away from Mr. Pretti, who has collapsed. Another agent \u2014 the same one who shoved the civilians into the street and pepper-sprayed Mr. Pretti \u2014 unholsters his gun and fires at Mr. Pretti. The first agent also fires additional shots. Together, they fire six more shots at Mr. Pretti while he lies motionless on the ground.<\/p>\n At least 10 shots appear to have been fired within five seconds. By the moment of the 10th shot, the agent who had moved away with the recovered weapon has crossed the street.<\/p>\n Mr. Pretti is the second person to have been shot and killed by a federal agent in Minnesota in recent weeks. Footage of Mr. Pretti\u2019s death in Minneapolis was posted to social media almost immediately after the shooting.<\/p>\n The Homeland Security Department said that the episode began after a man approached Border Patrol agents with a handgun, and that an agent fired \u201cdefensive shots.\u201d Another incident in Minneapolis this month, in which a Venezuelan man was shot in the leg by a federal agent, was also characterized as \u201cdefensive\u201d by the department.<\/p>\n Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota disputed the claims by federal officials that Mr. Pretti had posed a threat. He accused \u201cthe most powerful people in the federal government\u201d of \u201cspinning stories and putting up pictures.\u201d<\/p>\n Brian O\u2019Hara, the chief of the Minneapolis Police Department, said that Mr. Pretti was an American citizen with no criminal record, and that he had a valid firearms permit. Under Minnesota law, citizens can legally carry a handgun in public, without concealment, if they have a permit.<\/p>\n Large crowds of protesters continued to gather throughout the day at the site of Mr. Pretti\u2019s shooting. Later in the day, Mr. Walz authorized the deployment of the Minnesota National Guard, who will wear neon reflective vests to differentiate themselves from federal agents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Federal agents shot and killed a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, at about 9 a.m. Central time on Saturday morning. A video shared with The New York Times by an eyewitness and her lawyer, as well as other video footage posted on social media, documents the violent scene, where agents appear to fire at<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[1215,4157,22448,4527,7225,19067],"class_list":{"0":"post-42667","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-alex","9":"tag-jeffrey","10":"tag-pretti","11":"tag-shooting","12":"tag-timeline","13":"tag-unfolded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}25<\/strong> seconds before <\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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First shot fired
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