Slow motion footage of the moment Alex Pretti was executed.
At the beginning of the footage, you can see a guy - in the centre of the frame, wearing a grey baseball cap - reaching his right hand (on our left) to the holstered weapon on Pretti's hip. From 0:13, he's removed the gun and you can see the empty holster, as this agent leaves the scrum with the weapon (there is footage from the opposite angle that shows this more clearly and corroborates that he had disarmed Pretti and was taking the gun away).
The guy in the ski mask then shoots Pretti in the back, more than once, after he was disarmed. This was also fucking reckless behaviour, as his fellow ICE agents were still in the scrum, holding Pretti down, and he just fires into the scrum.
As Pretti falls to the ground, we can also confirm that there was nothing in his hands, because he puts out his hands to break his fall and there is nothing in them.
In the longer footage, Pretti never reaches for his gun or threats to do so. That's, indeed, why it's still in the holster on his hip, when the grey cap guy disarms him.
Admittedly, open carrying at a protest is a mad concept, that can very easily be argued deeply unwise, but it is still, nevertheless, perfectly legal and permissible in Minnesota - it's not punishable by execution.
Indeed, the real mad thing is that the NRA and pro-gun groups have actually openly called for this to be investigated - because, after all, he was legally exercising his 2nd Amendment rights:
https://x.com/NRA/status/2015227627464728661
NRA wrote:F.A. United States Attorney Bill Essayli wrote:If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you.
Don’t do it!
This sentiment from the First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California is dangerous and wrong.
Responsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens.
In 2024, Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, read out a speech honouring a veteran he'd cared for. The words are haunting because in saying that freedom sometimes needs its sacrifices, he didn't know those words would be put to the flame less than 2 years later:
"Words ought to be a little wild - for they are assaults of thought on the unthinking."
- John Maynard Keynes
