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Alex Pretti's Family Gives First TV Interview Seven Months After He Was Killed by Federal Agents in Minneapolis

Relatives of the ICU nurse and U.S. citizen shot on Jan. 24 said they want accountability; no criminal charges have been publicly announced against the two agents who fired, and state and federal investigations remain open.

How spun is the coverage?Coverage bias 5.1 / 10
4 sides analyzed24 sources cited

A Nurse, a Gun, and Ten Shots: Seven Months Later, No One Has Been Charged

Susan and Michael Pretti learned their son had been shot by watching the news. Susan recognized his jacket and his sunglasses on the screen before anyone told her his name[1]. That was Jan. 24, 2026. On Aug. 25, the Prettis sat down with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "Good Morning America" for their first television interview since Alex Pretti died[1][3]. "They murdered our child," they said. Seven months on, no one has been charged.

Pretti was 37, a U.S. citizen, and an intensive care nurse for the Department of Veterans Affairs[1][2]. He was shot by federal immigration agents in south Minneapolis during Operation Metro Surge, the enforcement push the Trump administration launched in December 2025[1][2]. The basic sequence is not in dispute. What it means legally still is, and that gap is the story.

What the Video Shows, Second by Second

Bystanders filmed the encounter from several angles, so this isn't a case built on memory or a single account[4][7]. Pretti was recording agents on his phone. An agent pushed a woman to the ground. Pretti appeared to move toward her.

Agents then pepper-sprayed Pretti and took him down, where several of them held him on the ground. One agent pulled away the handgun Pretti was carrying under a valid permit while he was still pinned. Then another agent fired roughly ten shots into his back[1][4][11].

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide on Feb. 2, with the cause listed as multiple gunshot wounds[5][6]. That word matters, but not in the way it's often used. A homicide ruling means one person's actions caused another person's death. It is not a verdict that a crime happened — that question is still entirely open.

A Story That Collapsed, Then Softened

Within hours of the shooting, before any investigation had started, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti "attacked those officers, had a weapon on him," and described someone who came "to inflict maximum damage"[7][8]. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino used the word "massacre"[7].

Then the video caught up with the statements. CNN's frame-by-frame review and FactCheck.org both found the footage appears to show officers moving toward Pretti, not the other way around[4][7]. Noem later softened her language, saying officials had spoken from "the best information" available at the time[7]. Bovino was moved out of Minnesota, and Tom Homan took over the operation[7][18]. White House aide Stephen Miller went further, conceding the agents "may not have been following" protocol[9].

None of that walked back is the same as a correction. The administration has revised its tone without ever publicly retracting the initial account, which is part of why the family says they still don't have "the complete truth"[1].

The Video the Other Side Points To

Conservative outlets keep returning to a different piece of footage: a video from Jan. 13, eleven days before the shooting, that appears to show Pretti spitting at federal agents and kicking a taillight off a federal SUV at an earlier protest. His family confirmed to the Star Tribune that it was him[10].

Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett called it evidence of Pretti's "state of mind," and a former prosecutor argued he should have faced charges for the spitting at the time[10][20]. President Trump called Pretti an "agitator" and said he was "perhaps" an "insurrectionist."

There's a real hole in that argument, though, and it's worth naming plainly: the two agents who fired on Jan. 24 had no way of knowing about the Jan. 13 video. Whatever it shows about Pretti's conduct toward agents in general, it can't have shaped what those two men perceived in the moment they decided to shoot. It may explain why the administration sees him differently than his family does. It doesn't reach the legal question of whether the shooting itself was justified.

The Legal Wall Standing Between This Case and a Courtroom

Here is the term this entire fight turns on: Supremacy Clause immunity. It is not a loophole someone invented for this case — it's a long-standing doctrine, and understanding it is the only way to judge either side fairly.

A federal agent charged with a state crime can move the case out of state court and into federal court. There, the agent argues that what he did was necessary to carry out a federal duty. If a federal judge agrees, the state prosecution ends, with no trial and no jury[21][22]. The doctrine exists because a state opposed to a federal law could otherwise cripple it by prosecuting every officer who enforces it.

But the shield isn't unlimited. The word that matters is "necessary." An agent who used force well beyond what the job actually required isn't protected. That means Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty and the two agents need the exact same piece of evidence to make opposite arguments: she has to show the shooting went beyond what the situation required, and they have to show it didn't[21][22]. That's why the moment agents pulled Pretti's gun away while he was pinned down carries so much weight for both sides.

Moriarty has already shown she's willing to charge federal agents from this operation. She's charged Christian Castro with four counts of second-degree assault and falsely reporting a crime, and Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. with two counts of second-degree assault, for pointing a gun at motorists[12][13]. Those charges involve separate incidents, not Pretti's death. On his case specifically, her office says it couldn't evaluate charges until the federal government handed over its evidence, which didn't happen until July, including body camera footage and officer statements withheld for months[14].

The two agents who fired, Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and CBP officer Raymundo Gutierrez, were identified through government records by ProPublica and placed on leave[11][16]. As of Aug. 28, 2026, neither has been publicly charged with anything.

A Prosecutor Working Both Sides of the Same Case

The Justice Department opened a federal civil rights investigation into the shooting[15][17]. But DOJ sits in an awkward spot: it's the same department that would prosecute Ochoa and Gutierrez federally and the one that would defend them against Moriarty's state case. That conflict exists no matter who's in charge of the department.

It may explain a staffing choice CBS News reported: the Civil Rights Division's career prosecutors, the ones who specialize in excessive-force cases, were left off the Pretti investigation. In their place, the division assigned Brandon Wrobleski, a lawyer from the employment litigation section with no prior federal criminal experience, working alongside two prosecutors from the Minneapolis U.S. Attorney's office[24]. DOJ hasn't publicly explained the choice.

Even a criminal charge wouldn't fully resolve things for the Pretti family. Their ability to sue the agents directly is narrowed by Supreme Court rulings that have sharply limited damages claims against federal officers — a point raised even by Reason, a libertarian magazine that has been critical of the administration's handling of this case[19]. For the family, a criminal prosecution isn't one option among several. It's close to the only one left.

What Would Actually Change the Picture

Coverage of the Aug. 25 interview split along familiar lines. ABC led with the family's word "murdered" as the headline[1]. Fox News kept steering back to the Jan. 13 video, using language like "state of mind" that shifts the frame from what officers reasonably perceived toward what the family's son may have deserved[10]. Democracy Now! ran the family's demand for accountability with no mention of the administration's side at all[6]. Twitchy covered the interview as a story about ABC's booking decision rather than about the shooting itself[6]. The Star Tribune's coverage stood out as the least editorialized, centering the legal mechanics over either side's moral argument, and it was also the outlet that confirmed the Jan. 13 video with the family[6].

One correction worth noting: some summaries circulating online have said the two agents who fired "were charged for use of force." That isn't accurate. The two Operation Metro Surge agents Hennepin County has charged, Castro and Morgan, are different people, and their charges stem from separate incidents[12][13].

What would actually move this story forward isn't another statement from either side. It's a charging document with Ochoa's or Gutierrez's name on it — or a public decision not to file one. Seven months in, that document doesn't exist yet, and Moriarty's office says its review is still ongoing[14].

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The Bias Ledger average rating 5.1

The same story, as framed by outlets across the spectrum, ordered least to most biased. The bias score (1 = straight, 10 = heavily spun) is an AI assessment of that framing — click an outlet to see its track record. The tell is the word choice or omission that reveals the angle.

OutletVantageBiasHow they frame itThe tell
Star TribuneU.S. center, Minnesota metro daily2"The unprecedented challenge of prosecuting federal agents for killing Renee Good, Alex Pretti" and "Moriarty: State 'in good shape' to consider charging federal agents"The least editorialized coverage in this set — it centers the legal obstacle (Supremacy Clause immunity, removal to federal court) rather than either side's moral claim. It also confirmed the Jan. 13 video with the family, a detail most left-leaning outlets skipped.
ProPublicaU.S. left-leaning nonprofit investigative newsroom, foundation-funded3"CBP Agents Jesus Ochoa, Raymundo Gutierrez ID'd in Alex Pretti Shooting"Naming the two agents from government records is real accountability reporting the government had withheld. The tell is selection: identifying individual officers is a choice that a newsroom makes about which institution deserves scrutiny, and here the headline is the names.
ABC NewsU.S. center-left4"Family of Alex Pretti speaks out in exclusive interview: 'They murdered our child'"The family's word "murdered" is elevated into the headline as the hook. It is accurately quoted, but no legal body has made that finding, and the piece is ABC's own booking — the exclusive is the product being sold.
CNNU.S. center-left6"The Trump administration's rushed narrative about the killing of Alex Pretti has collapsed" and "What Trump officials claimed about Alex Pretti — and what the evidence actually shows"CNN's own frame-by-frame video work is the most concrete original reporting in this story. But "collapsed" is a verdict word in a news headline, and the analysis pieces are labeled analysis while carrying the news load.
Democracy Now!U.S. left, viewer/foundation-funded6"Alex Pretti's Family Calls for Accountability Seven Months After His Killing by Federal Agents"Runs the family's demand as the news event, with no reference to the administration's defense or to the Jan. 13 video. Nothing stated is false; the omission is the angle.
Fox NewsU.S. right7"Video appears to show Alex Pretti spit at agents, damage SUV days before fatal shooting" and "Alex Pretti should have faced charges for spitting on agent before fatal shooting: former prosecutor"Coverage repeatedly returns to a Jan. 13 incident that the agents who fired on Jan. 24 had no knowledge of. Framing his prior conduct as "state of mind" quietly moves the legal question from what officers reasonably perceived to what the victim deserved. Fox has also covered the DOJ probe straightforwardly.
TwitchyU.S. right, aggregation/commentary8"ABC News Interviews Alex Pretti's Grieving Family, Who Want Accountability"Covers the interview as a media story rather than a news story — the subject becomes ABC's booking decision, not the shooting. This is the clearest example of a whole camp routing around the underlying facts.

References

  1. Family of Alex Pretti speaks out in exclusive interview: 'They murdered our child' — ABC News · U.S. center-left broadcast network news division
  2. Alex Pretti fatally shot by federal officers in Minneapolis identified — NBC News · U.S. center-left broadcast network news division
  3. Alex Pretti's family calls for accountability 7 months after fatal CBP shooting — The Hill · U.S. center, Washington political trade publication
  4. Video Analyses at Odds with DHS Statements on Minneapolis Shooting — FactCheck.org · U.S. center; project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, university-funded
  5. After 9 days, Hennepin County medical examiner classifies Alex Pretti's death as 'homicide' — Star Tribune · U.S. center, Minneapolis metro daily, privately owned
  6. Medical examiner issues initial, public report on death of Alex Pretti — MPR News · U.S. center-left, Minnesota public radio, member- and grant-funded
  7. What Trump officials claimed about Alex Pretti — and what the evidence actually shows — CNN · U.S. center-left cable network
  8. DHS' Kristi Noem addresses mass calls for her firing, new Alex Pretti video — Fox News · U.S. right, cable network owned by Fox Corporation
  9. Stephen Miller Concedes Agents Who Killed Alex Pretti 'May Not Have Been Following' Protocol — Yahoo News · U.S. center-left aggregator
  10. Video appears to show Alex Pretti spit at agents, damage SUV days before fatal shooting — Fox News · U.S. right, cable network owned by Fox Corporation
  11. CBP Agents Jesus Ochoa, Raymundo Gutierrez ID'd in Alex Pretti Shooting — ProPublica · U.S. left-leaning nonprofit investigative newsroom, foundation-funded
  12. ICE agent charged in Minnesota with assault in shooting of immigrant — CNBC · U.S. center, business network owned by Comcast/NBCUniversal
  13. Minnesota charges federal officer with assault for pointing gun at vehicle during immigration surge — NPR · U.S. center-left public radio, member- and grant-funded
  14. Feds turn over evidence in killings of Renee Good, Alex Pretti by immigration agents — Minnesota Reformer · U.S. left-leaning nonprofit state newsroom, part of States Newsroom, foundation-funded
  15. DOJ opens civil rights probe into killing of Alex Pretti by federal agents — JURIST · U.S. center, law-school-based legal news service, University of Pittsburgh
  16. Border Patrol places agents who shot Alex Pretti on leave — Yahoo News · U.S. center-left aggregator
  17. DOJ opens federal civil rights probe into the death of Alex Pretti, but holds back on Renee Good — The Hill · U.S. center, Washington political trade publication
  18. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem under scrutiny; Bovino exits Minnesota after Alex Pretti killing — CBS News · U.S. center-left broadcast network news division
  19. The feds who killed Alex Pretti are heavily shielded from being sued. Blame the Supreme Court for that. — Reason · U.S. libertarian magazine, published by the Reason Foundation, donor-funded
  20. Alex Pretti should have faced charges for spitting on agent before fatal shooting: former prosecutor — Fox News · U.S. right, cable network owned by Fox Corporation
  21. When Can States Prosecute Federal Agents? — State Court Report · U.S. left-of-center; published by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law
  22. Can ICE Agents Be Prosecuted? Stanford Law's Robert Weisberg Explains Federal Shootings and Constitutional Limits — Stanford Law School · U.S. academic, university publication
  23. ICE agent who faces charges in Minnesota shooting arrested in Texas — CBC News · Canadian public broadcaster, government-funded
  24. DOJ's Alex Pretti shooting probe excludes prosecutors who specialize in civil rights cases, sources say — CBS News · U.S. center-left broadcast network news division