Excessive Force

Jacob Sullum | 1.29.2026 5:20 PM

Federal officials have repeatedly claimed that the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) employees who fatally shot Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti on Saturday did so in the midst of a "riot." The situation, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem said after the shooting, was "a violent riot" where "you have someone showing up with weapons." Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol commander who headed the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis until he was reassigned this week, echoed that assessment during a CNN interview the next day.

This alleged riot figures in attempts to blame Pretti for his own death, and it could be relevant in evaluating the decision to grab and restrain him, which resulted in a scuffle that ended with lethal gunfire. But it is inconsistent with bystander videos of the incident, photographs of the scene, eyewitness accounts, and the report that CBP's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) gave Congress on Tuesday.

The initial justification for the shooting, which Noem and other officials offered within hours of the incident, portrayed Pretti as a "gunman" who was "brandishing" a pistol, "was there to perpetuate violence," "attacked those officers," aimed to "inflict harm" on them, and "wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement." That account was immediately contradicted by footage of the encounter, which showed that Pretti, who had a carry permit, never drew his pistol. The gun remained in its holster until a Border Patrol agent removed it during the struggle that resulted in Pretti's death. The videos also show it is not true that Pretti "attacked those officers" before they decided to tackle him.

In light of that evidence, the Trump administration has retreated from the claim that Pretti was bent on murder. On Wednesday, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who on Saturday described Pretti as a "would-be assassin" and "a domestic terrorist" who "tried to assassinate federal law enforcement," said he had been relying on "reports from CBP on the ground." President Donald Trump, who initially lent credence to the story that Miller amplified, now says the shooting was "tragic" and "very unfortunate."

Trump nevertheless continues to fault Pretti for carrying a gun. "I don't like any shooting," he told The Wall Street Journal on Sunday. "But I don't like it when somebody goes into a protest and he's got a very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines." Trump reiterated that complaint on Tuesday. "You can't have guns," he told reporters. "You can't walk in with guns. You just can't.........

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