He was already on the radar.
Alex Pretti — the ICU nurse whose killing by Border Patrol agents ignited Minneapolis — was “known” to federal immigration officers and claimed he suffered a broken rib during a violent confrontation with agents about a week before he was shot, according to a report.
Pretti told a friend he saw ICE agents chasing what he described as a family on foot, and he stopped his car during the earlier incident, CNN reported.
The friend said Pretti claimed he pulled over, started shouting, and blew a whistle. Then, the source said, the response was swift and brutal: five agents allegedly tackled him.
Pretti claimed one agent left him with a broken rib after leaning on his back, the friend told CNN. “That day, he thought he was going to die,” the source said, adding Pretti was released by agents at the scene.
And the report suggests it wasn’t just a one-off clash.
CNN reported that federal immigration officers had been documenting details about Pretti — along with other anti-ICE protesters — in Minneapolis in recent weeks.
A memo sent this month to agents deployed to the city allegedly urged them to collect everything in sight: “Capture all images, license plates, identifications, and general information on hotels, agitators, protestors, etc., so we can capture it all in one consolidated form,” the network reported.
More over at CNN:
CNN: Alex Pretti broke rib in confrontation with federal agents a week before death, sources sayhttps://t.co/ePeTtiz8mi
— Jennie Taer (@JennieSTaer) January 27, 2026
