Dear Editor,

After watching multiple videos from different perspectives, posted on the website Drop Site News, one conclusion emerges. The killing of Alex Pretti, the ICU nurse in Minneapolis, was unwarranted and illegal.  It could be that Ice agents are so universally hated that they close ranks in a tribal reaction.  The President and Kristi Noem continue to cover for them. 

Close-up video footage, obtained by Drop Site, shows one agent push a woman into an ice bank, then spray a chemical irritant twice on Pretti as he reaches down to help the woman. Around eight agents then pull him away from the woman and wrestle him to the ground. In the beginning of the confrontation, Pretti is seen holding a cell phone and recording ICE actions. Upon pinning him to the pavement, one of the ICE officers finds Pretti’s holstered handgun, and seizes it. He had a concealed carry permit.

In the video we can see the officer who took the handgun walk away, and clearly after this, another ICE agent is seen unholstering his gun and firing around four point-blank gunshots at Pretti, while he is pinned to the pavement. Pretti was no threat in the beginning of the confrontation, and certainly not as he was pinned down. It was ICE who initiated the confrontation. Then, as the ICE agents walk back from the scene, they fire 4 more shots into Pretti’s lifeless body… ten gunshots in all. WTF?

The government talking heads immediately laid the blame on Pretti, saying he approached with the gun unholstered (a lie), that he actively resisted (yeah… 8 guys piling on you when you are innocent, with one agent hitting Pretti in the head 3 times with some object that looked like a gun, we all would resist this.) The Dept of Justice has again blocked Minnesota from participating in the investigation. 

Representative Seth Moulton (D-MA) had more to say: “​​What we just saw this morning on the streets of Minneapolis is another outright murder by federal officials. And let me just be clear, those federal ICE officers are absolute cowards. I am a Marine veteran standing here telling you to your face they are unprofessional, pathetic cowards. Because if a Marine, an 18-year-old Marine, did that in Iraq in the middle of a war zone, he would be court martialed because it is murder. And you pathetic little cowards who have to wear face masks because you're so damn scared, couldn't even effectively wrestle a guy [to] the ground, so you needed to shoot him? This is why ICE needs to be prosecuted.”

Pretti’s parents wrote this about their son’s death. “We are heartbroken but also very angry. Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact.

“I do not throw around the ‘hero’ term lightly. However, his last thought and act was to protect a woman. The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He had his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed. Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man.”

The government has already decided this case…. that Pretti was an agitator who got what he deserved. Who among us would not stand against oppression? Who among us would not reach out to help a woman that some ICE thug just threw on the ground? 

ICE claims that they are deporting the worst of the worst but many that they are deporting are in the country legally after seeking asylum, often checking in for their asylum hearing. Most are law abiding with no criminal record. When will this end?  

Bill Thibedeau

Gilpin County