President Donald Trump said his administration is reviewing Saturday’s fatal shooting by a federal officer in Minneapolis.
“We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything, and will come out with a determination,” Trump said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Sunday.
Alex Pretti, 37, was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis during immigration enforcement operations Saturday morning.
Federal officials alleged that Pretti approached Border Patrol agents with a weapon as they conducted an arrest of an illegal immigrant. A struggle broke out between Pretti and the officers as they “attempted to disarm the suspect but the armed suspect violently resisted,” according a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) post on X.
“Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, an agent fired defensive shots,” the department added.
More details about the incident will be released, DHS said.
Members of the media have raised questions about the shooting.
During an interview with Fox News on Jan. 25, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was
asked about a video shot by a bystander that appeared to show a federal agent removing a weapon from either Pretti’s waistband or a holster, then walking away with the weapon before officers ultimately shot Pretti.
“It appears that Alex Pretti was disarmed,” host Peter Doocy asked the secretary. “If he was disarmed, is it the protocol to use deadly force?”
Noem responded that all video angles will be “part of this investigation.”
“Every video will be analyzed, everything will be looked at, and that’s part of the answers that I can’t speak to—every single thing that those officers thought, but this happened in seconds,” she said. “They clearly feared for their lives and took action to defend themselves and the people around them.”
Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino joined Noem’s defense of the Trump administration’s law enforcement efforts in Minneapolis. He accused Pretti of being “in the scene actively impeding and assaulting law enforcement.”
“What’s not being said here is the fact that border patrol agents and law enforcement were conducting a targeted law enforcement effort against a violent illegal alien that was nearby, and that suspect injected himself into that law enforcement situation with a weapon,” he told CNN.
“What happened between when that situation first came about, and the shooting; that’s going to be investigated. And we’re going to get to the facts of that.”
The operation in Minnesota is part of the Trump administration’s nationwide crackdown on illegal immigration and criminal activity.
Trump has signaled that he will eventually withdraw immigration enforcement officials from the Minneapolis area.
“At some point we will leave. We’ve done, they’ve done a phenomenal job,” the president said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
