Alex Pretti: Analysing Footage of Minneapolis CBP Shooting

To stay up to date on our latest investigations, join Bellingcat’s WhatsApp channel here On January 24, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Health Care System, was shot and killed by federal agents on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The shooting comes just over two weeks after Renee […]
The post Alex Pretti: Analysing Footage of Minneapolis CBP Shooting appeared first on bellingcat.

Alex Pretti: Analysing Footage of Minneapolis CBP Shooting

January 25, 2026

• Border Patrol

• ICE

• Immigration

To stay up to date on our latest investigations, join Bellingcat’s WhatsApp channel here

On January 24, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Health Care System, was shot and killed by federal agents on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The shooting comes just over two weeks after Renee Good was shot and killed by a federal agent in the same city.

The United States Department of Homeland Security claimed Pretti was killed after an “armed struggle” with DHS officers and that it seemed he had wanted to “do maximum damage”. Yet video footage shared online, showing shortly before and during the incident, appears to contradict that claim.

Some of the earliest available footage of the encounter was posted to Instagram and shows an agent crossing the street to talk to Pretti who appears to be filming with his phone, which he is holding in his right hand. According to DHS, agents were conducting an immigration arrest in the area.

The agent can be seen placing his hand on Pretti’s torso to push him back and away from the middle of the road towards the sidewalk.

Another video shared on Reddit shows what happened after this initial contact, as well as the lead-up to the shooting. Pretti appears to put himself between two women after they were both shoved by a DHS agent. He is holding a cellphone, held sideways in his right hand.

**A video shows Pretti recording federal agents roughly a minute before he is shot. Pretti’s right hand is holding a cellphone, filming. Source: **Neuroscissus/Reddit**

An agent can then be seen spraying Pretti with a substance from a canister, and continuing to spray him as he turns his back to him. At least five additional federal agents approach and attempt to force Pretti to the ground while one appears to strike him with a spray can.

Twenty-five seconds after Pretti is first sprayed, a shot is heard followed by nine more shots in the span of about six seconds. Additional video from the scene shows Pretti lying motionless on the ground.

Video Analysis

Bellingcat further analysed the Reddit video, a separate video posted to Facebook and others taken at the scene to break down the key moments of the shooting, splicing them together (see Bluesky post below) to view in more granular detail.

We’ve placed the available videos of the shooting of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis today into the same synchronised timeline and are continuing to analyse further.

[image or embed]

— Bellingcat (@bellingcat.com) 24 January 2026 at 20:39

Closer inspection of the videos shows that an agent appears to remove a weapon from the melee before the first shots are fired.

In both the Reddit and Facebook video, a federal agent wearing a grey jacket can be seen approaching federal agents who are on top of and struggling with Pretti. Notably, the agent’s hands are empty as he approaches. He can be seen reaching into and rummaging amid the bodies. About twelve seconds later, he is seen carrying a handgun away from the scene.

Another video, also posted to Reddit, shows the agent removing a gun from a holster in Pretti’s waistband before he is shot.

Federal Agent in grey jacket can be seen reaching to pull the gun out of Pretti’s holster. Brightness increased by Bellingcat. **ChaseTacos/Reddit**. Annotations by Bellingcat.

Several aspects of the gun the federal agent is seen moving away with appear to match the gun DHS claim belonged to Pretti (and which they posted to X), a Sig Sauer P320, chambered in 9mm. Some posts online mistakenly claimed the photo of the gun was old due to a misunderstanding of Google Reverse Image Search.

While some law enforcement agencies issue Sig Sauer P320 guns to their agents, the gun that DHS claims Pretti had is customized, and visually distinct from those that are standard issue.

These distinct features include a white pistol grip, black pistol frame, brown slide, and a red dot sight mounted atop the slide. The red dot sight and these various colours are visible on the gun the federal agent is seen leaving with.

**Left: Screenshot showing a federal agent retreating with a gun retrieved from Pretti’s rear waistband, as Pretti is shot by another federal agent. Right: Photo released by DHS of the gun they say belonged to Pretti. Sources: **Philophon/Reddit** and **Department of Homeland Security** Annotations by Bellingcat.**

Before the agent who takes the gun leaves the scene, it appears someone shouts “gun”, as can be heard in this video that was posted to X, and another video posted to Reddit.

This Reddit video also shows that almost immediately after the agent in the grey jacket leaves with the gun, a single gunshot can be heard, followed by nine other shots.

Slowing it down, the same video shows that as the federal agent in the grey jacket removes Pretti’s gun, an agent in a black beanie, who appears to have a line of sight on the gun being removed, begins to draw his own weapon. As soon as the agent in the grey jacket moves away with the gun and leaves, the agent in the black beanie steps to where the agent in the grey jacket had been with his finger on the trigger and fires the first shot.

Two agents appear to fire their weapons from the footage available, one wearing a black beanie and another wearing a brown beanie, as can be seen in this video.

A screengrab from a Facebook video shows the agent in the brown beanie (left) and the agent in the black beanie (right), both in white box, who fired the shots. Annotations by Bellingcat.

[...]

Original source