Newly released video from a pro-illegal-immigration riot on January 13 purports to show Alex Pretti, the gunman whom border agents shot to death on Saturday, in a violent confrontation with federal law enforcement.
The video, confirmed by the BBC, the narrator says, shows an unhinged man who resembles Pretti. He attacks the agents’ vehicle, after which an agent puts him on the ground. If the man is Pretti, it might well be the attack in which he suffered a broken rib.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told NewsNation today that the agents involved in shooting and killing Pretti are on administrative leave. A report on the shooting from U.S. Customs Border and Protection (CBP) went public yesterday.
The Video
Posted to YouTube today, the video from the independent News Movement shows what appears to be Pretti in a furious attack on the agents’ Ford Expedition.
The video shows the man spitting on the SUV and twice kicking it as the agents left the scene. The second kick broke the passenger-side tail light. An agent emerged from the SUV and took Pretti down.
“Our footage was analyzed by the BBC, whose facial recognition technology confirmed his identity to a 97-percent degree of accuracy,” the narrator says.
During the fight with Pretti, the agents deployed tear gas and pepper balls.
“The man in our footage is wearing a similar outfit to what Pretti was wearing on the day he was killed,” the narrator continues:
What appears to be a gun is also visible above his waistband.
In other words, the video shows a violent, out-of-control man — very possibly Pretti — attempting to provoke the agents into responding.
As The New American reported yesterday, CNN revealed that Pretti told a source about the fight that left him with the broken rib.
The altercation with agents began “when he stopped his car after observing ICE agents chasing what he described as a family on foot, and began shouting and blowing his whistle,” CNN reported.
“Pretti later told the source that five agents tackled him and one leaned on his back — an encounter that left him with a broken rib,” the network continued:
The agents quickly released him at the scene.
“That day, he thought he was going to die,” said the source.
Pretti was later given medication consistent with treating a broken rib, according to records reviewed by CNN. …
Pretti’s name was known to federal agents, according to a source — though it’s unclear whether the new intake form was used to share his information.
It’s also not clear whether the federal agents who encountered Pretti on Saturday recognized him before they confronted him — eventually wrestling him to the ground, taking a gun from his waistband and then fatally shooting him.
DHS is investigating what happened with Pretti’s gun, a Sig Sauer P320, the day he was fatally shot.
The agency is trying to determine whether the 9mm semiautomatic fired when an agent took it from Pretti, or whether the agent inadvertently discharged it.
Agents on Administrative Leave
Whatever the answer, DHS has placed the agents involved in the Pretti shooting on administrative leave, it told NewsNation.
“Sources told NewsNation … that “three days of administrative leave are given to any agent following any officer-involved shooting per department policy,” the website reported:
DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin called agents being placed on leave “standard protocol.”
Administrative leave is full pay and not a disciplinary status, the source said. If an agent had his gun and badge pulled, they would be considered on restricted duty, not administrative leave, the source told NewsNation.
A DHS spokesperson said that the agents were placed on leave on Saturday. Gregory Bovino, the former Border Patrol commander-at-large who oversaw the Minneapolis operation until Monday, said Sunday that the agents involved in the shooting had been reassigned to administrative duties.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection released a short report, based on a preliminary review of the shooting, that went to Congress.
At about 9 a.m., the report says, two leftist women confronted CBP officers, which include Border Patrol agents, and blew whistles at them. The officers ordered the women out of the road and; they refused to budge.
An officer “pushed them both away and one of the females ran to a male, later identified as 37-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a US citizen,” the report continued:
The CBPO [CBP officer] attempted to move the woman and Pretti out of the roadway. The woman and Pretti did not move. The CBPO deployed his oleoresin capsicum (OC) spray towards both Pretti and the woman.
CBP personnel attempted to take Pretti into custody. Pretti resisted CBP personnel’s efforts and a struggle ensued. During the struggle, a BPA [Border Patrol agent] yelled, “He’s got a gun!” multiple times. Approximately five seconds later, a BPA discharged his CBP-issued Glock 19 and a CBPO also discharged his CBP-issued Glock 47 at Pretti. After the shooting, a BPA advised he had possession of Pretti’s firearm. The BPA subsequently cleared and secured Pretti’s firearm in his vehicle.
