The Anatomy of a State-Sponsored Murder
Kill, smear, cover-up.
“Four or five agents had him on the ground and they just started shooting him. They shot him so many times. I don’t know why they shot him. He was only helping. I was 5 feet from him and they just shot him.” — Witness affidavit filed Saturday in Federal Court.
Then the same witness said:
“I feel afraid. Only hours have passed since they shot a man right in front of me and I don’t feel like I can go home because I heard agents were looking for me. I don’t know what the agents will do when they find me. I do know that they’re not telling the truth about what happened. I’ve heard that other witnesses might have been arrested and taken to the Whipple Building.”
**
I understand the impulse to turn away from this, but we can’t avert our eyes from what’s happening in Occupied Minneapolis, where the exercise of either the First Amendment or the Second Amendment can carry a death sentence.
This is not America, we want to say. But it is: A government-sanctioned murder, followed by a cascade of lies and an attempted cover-up. Inevitably, Trump will try to use the violence as a pretext for more violence because chaos is his ladder.
But — and the usual caveats and cautions apply — it may be different this time. The Administration is demanding that we ignore the evidence of our eyes, but we saw what we saw — and there is actually something that can be done about it this week.
Happy Sunday.
What We Saw
Alex Pretti was an intensive care nurse, a U.S. citizen with no criminal record. On Saturday morning the whole world saw him being murdered by agents of his own government.
Multiple videos capture the last moments of his life.
Pretti was recording ICE activities on his phone. He was legally carrying a gun, but there is no sign in videos analyzed by multiple sources that he pulled his weapon, or that agents even knew he had one until he was already pinned on the sidewalk.
One of Pretti’s last acts is to help a woman who has been shoved down. “Are you OK?” he says. He is killed minutes later by agents who shot him after (1) federal agents had secured and removed the gun he was legally carrying, and (2) after he was down and posed no threat.
Trump officials once again rushed to smear the victim. Trump’s twisted homunculus, Stephen Miller, called him a “domestic terrorist” and “would-be assassin.” ICE thug Greg Bovino defended the killing, insisting that the real victims were the Border Patrol agents who shot Pretti. Kristi Noem lied with her wonted abandon: “This looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.”
Despite the video evidence, she claimed: “This individual attacked those officers, had a weapon on him and multiple, dozens of rounds of ammunition, wishing to inflict harm on these officers, coming, brandishing like that.”
But none of that happened. Writes Michael Sellers:
The most important irrefutable takeaways from the video record: (1) Pretti is holding a phone, not a gun, and is never seen brandishing or reaching for a gun; (2) a federal agent appears to pull the gun from his waistband during the struggle; (3) the shooting occurs after the weapon has been removed and Pretti has been disarmed (4) Ten shots are fired, five of them after Pretti is lying motionless on the street.1
The NYT also has a detailed frame-by-frame analysis of what happened: “Man Killed by Federal Agents in Minneapolis Was Holding a Phone, Not a Gun.”
You can find the detailed analysis here.
A small group of protesters stands in the street, speaking to a federal agent as whistles sound. Mr. Pretti appears to be filming the scene with his phone and directing traffic.
Mr. Pretti, wearing brown, is filming with his cellphone when agents approach then bring him to the ground.
An agent begins shoving the demonstrators, and squirts pepper spray at their faces.
At this moment, Mr. Pretti has both hands clearly visible. One is holding his phone, while he holds the other up to protect himself from pepper spray. He moves to help one of the protesters who was sprayed, as other agents approach and pull him from behind.
Several agents tussle with Mr. Pretti before bringing him to his knees. He appears to resist as the agents grab his legs, push down on his back and strike him repeatedly.
The footage shows an agent approaching with empty hands and grabbing at Mr. Pretti as the others hold him down.
About eight seconds after he is pinned, agents yell that he has a gun, indicating that they may not have known he was armed until he was on the ground.
The same agent who approached with empty hands pulls a gun from among the group that appears to match the profile of a firearm DHS said belonged to Mr. Pretti.
The agents appear to have him under their control, with his arms pinned near his head.
As the gun emerges from the melee, another agent aims his own firearm at Mr. Pretti’s back and appears to fire one shot at close range. He then appears to continue firing at Mr. Pretti, who collapses.
A third agent unholsters a weapon. Both agents appear to fire additional shots into Mr. Pretti as he lies motionless.
In total, at least 10 shots appear to have been fired within five seconds.
Pause here for a moment. As Andrew Sullivan noted: “They shot him nine times after they had already shot him in the back at point blank range.
**
The cover-up began almost immediately. Federal agents tried to block local police from investigating the shooting, but the Minneapolis police chief defied them, ordering local cops to secure the crime scene. But, within hours, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it — not the FBI — would investigate the shooting. That led Just Security’s Ryan Goodman to write that it “looks like the fix is in at the federal level.
DHS does not have any prosecutorial authority.
This would have to be a criminal investigation - which is the FBI and DOJ's lane.
DHS also already lied and CBP repeated the lies in stating their pre-investigation conclusions.
**
Trump of course was Trump, edging close to using the incident as a pretext to invoke the Insurrection Act. In his post, Trump accused both the governor and mayor of “inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric!”2
BONUS: The usual suspects celebrated the murder:
Nota Bene: The Murder of Alex Pretti
Ron Fournier: “The federal agents who shot and killed an intensive care unit nurse in Minnesota on Saturday are either dangerously bad cops. Or they’re stone-cold killers. Or both.”
Garry Kasparov: “[What’s] happening in Minnesota is method, not madness. Trump wants violence, to radicalize and divide, to create pretext for crackdowns.”
Alex Pretti was unarmed. He was beaten. He was pistol-whipped. He was pepper-sprayed. He was forced to the ground. Witnesses and video show him kneeling, hands raised, phone in hand, no weapon visible, no brandishing, no threat posed, no resistance underway. And then, while on his knees, Alex Pretti was shot multiple times in the back of the head and back by more than one ICE officer.
This was not a chaotic encounter. This was not a misunderstanding. This was not split-second confusion. This was an execution carried out in public, on camera, by agents of the United States government operating under the Trump administration.
God bless our Minnesota freedom-fighters. And now, please bow your heads, and join me in a (very) flawed-Christian word of prayer: Lord Jesus, please save our country from its “leaders.” And allow the good people of this nation, who remember what it actually stands for, to prevail. And let your hard rain of justice fall on these motherfuckers who are undoing it all.
**
ICYMI… David French on Saturday’s podcast:
About that Second Amendment
Jessica Riedl points out the cognitive dissonance on the pro-gun right.
Before: “The freedom to carry a gun and keep government in check is so fundamental that we’ll even accept regular school shootings as a consequence.”
Now: “Possessing a gun makes you a threat and justifies law enforcement killing you.
**
But… The NRA actually broke its silence today in a rare rebuke of the Trump Administration.
The NRA responded: “This sentiment from the First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California is dangerous and wrong. Responsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens.”
Similarly, Gun Owners of America, a gun rights advocacy and lobbying organization, replied to Essayli’s post saying it “condemn[s) the untoward comments.”
“The Second Amendment protects Americans’ right to bear arms while protesting—a right the federal government must not infringe upon,” the organization added.
Exit take: Cracks in the MAGA coalition detected.
What happens now?
Maybe something? Chuck Schumer seems to have woken up… “Shutdown risk rises after fatal Minneapolis shooting” — The Hill
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) on Saturday evening said that Democrats will block a major government funding package if it includes money for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), calling the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis “appalling.”
