Videos show altercation between Alex Pretti and federal agents 11 days before his murder | united states news & more related news here

Videos emerged Wednesday of an earlier confrontation between Alex Pretti and federal agents, 11 days before federal agents shot and killed the ICU nurse in Minneapolis.

About two minutes of video, posted by News Movement, a digital news outlet, show an incident on Jan. 13 in Minneapolis in which officers appeared to grab Pretti and throw him to the ground during intense community protests against federal repression in the city.

It’s unclear what preceded the events caught on camera, but footage shows Pretti yelling at officers in an unmarked vehicle and then spitting at their vehicle and kicking the taillight as it drives away. Shortly after, a heavily armed officer in tactical gear is seen exiting the car and appears to tackle Pretti to the ground as other officers crowd around him.

Pretti appears to free himself from the officers shortly after and then gets up and remains at the scene as the officers leave. After officers remove Pretti’s coat, the News Movement video shows what appears to be a gun in his waistband. Pretti, who state officials confirmed had a permit to carry a concealed pistol, never touched it during or after the altercation.

A representative for the family confirmed to The Guardian that it was Pretti who appeared in the newly discovered images.

Steve Schleicher, an attorney representing Pretti’s family, said in a statement: “A week before Alex was shot to death in the street – despite posing no threat to anyone – he was violently assaulted by a group of ICE agents. Nothing that happened a week earlier could have justified Alex’s murder.”

A representative for the family also said they were aware of the incident and that Pretti suffered injuries but did not receive medical attention.

The Minnesota Star Tribune on Wednesday published a separate bystander video of the same incident, showing officers tackling Pretti. Max Shapiro, a witness who filmed the interaction, told the newspaper: “They hit him to the ground pretty hard.” The footage ends with Shapiro approaching Pretti and asking if he is okay, to which Pretti responds, “I’m okay. Are we all okay? Are we all safe?”

A third video of the incident, posted on YouTube the day it occurred, gives a glimpse of the turbulent anger over the ongoing immigration enforcement operation, with cars honking and people blowing whistles to alert their neighbors to the presence of federal agents.

Pretti and the other protesters confronted federal agents that day just four blocks from where Renee Good had been murdered by an ICE officer the previous week.

After the News Movement video surfaced, right-wing commentators, including Donald Trump, claimed it showed Pretti “spitting” on federal agents before being tackled. However, the third witness’s video, recorded from the reverse angle, shows that Pretti spit on the vehicle in which the officers were.

All videos show that during the incident, officers fired tear gas and pepper balls into the crowd while continuing to restrain Pretti. Chaotic footage shows other residents gathering and yelling at officers after the incident.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in an email Wednesday night that they were reviewing the footage.

It’s unclear from the footage what exactly sparked Pretti’s apparent anger toward the officers.

Sahan Journal, a local outlet that covers immigrant communities, reported from the area that day that a crowd of more than 100 people had gathered to watch and protest following reports of ICE presence in the neighborhood.

The outlet reported that a woman had been forcibly removed from her vehicle after officers smashed her window. State Representative Aisha Gómez was also at the scene and told the outlet that officers knocked down another man and pushed his head to the ground before taking him away.

Gómez told the outlet that the officers had also had physical contact with her, saying, “They pushed me without any verbal communication.”

Jacob Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis, was asked about the footage at a CNN town hall and responded that he did not consider it relevant to Pretti’s murder 11 days later.

“I think we should talk about the circumstances that actually led to the murder and what happened and those circumstances,” the mayor said.

Trump administration officials initially claimed that Pretti was “brandishing” a gun on the day he was killed and that he intended to “massacre” officers, claims that were contradicted by a video that showed him holding a phone, not a gun.

“The disgusting lies the administration tells about our son are reprehensible and disgusting,” Pretti’s family said in a statement shortly after his murder. “Alex is clearly not holding a gun when he was attacked by Trump’s murderous and cowardly ICE thugs… Please tell the truth about our son. He was a good man.”