National, Regional and Local News

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

How We Determined That Minneapolis Videos Contradicted Federal Officials

Using more than a dozen videos related to the shooting of Alex Pretti, The Times worked to establish what is called ground truth: what happened, how it happened and who might be responsible.

By Mark Scheffler

Mark Scheffler leads the Visual Investigations team at The New York Times.
Jan. 26, 2026

Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.

The first viral video from Minneapolis last Saturday morning told only a partial story: Federal agents skirmish in the street with several civilians. Officers bring a man to the ground. Gunshots go off.

What were the federal officers doing? What preceded the confrontation? What went on in the scuffle? Who fired? Who was the man? Was he alive or dead?

There are often more questions than answers in the work of the Visual Investigations team at The New York Times. Our job is to assemble and analyze visual material — including video footage taken by both witnesses and security cameras — to piece together chaotic events and present as full a picture of what happened as we can.

Our goal isn’t to establish guilt or innocence. We aren’t a court of law. Instead, we establish what we call ground truth: what happened, how it happened and who might be responsible. We follow the visuals wherever they take us, not to a predetermined conclusion. In doing so, this work can start to establish accountability.

In the case of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident and intensive-care nurse, we started our work by establishing a few facts gleaned from the initial reporting and videos: Some demonstrators had gathered to protest immigration raids by federal officials. Mr. Pretti was filming with his cellphone before he was taken to the ground by several officers.

By midday Saturday, we had gathered video footage from a few angles that showed two officers firing at least 10 shots at Mr. Pretti, and we learned from the Department of Homeland Security that he had been pronounced dead at the scene.

For many viewers, the videos presented an unassailable conclusion: A man exercising his First Amendment rights was wrestled down and shot dead by federal agents.

Officials for the Trump administration had a different take: Mr. Pretti had attacked officers, said Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary. Gregory Bovino, the official in charge of Border Patrol operations, said Mr. Pretti had wanted to “massacre law enforcement.” These claims echoed Ms. Noem’s characterization of Renee Good, who was shot dead by an ICE agent in Minneapolis in early January.
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We wanted to understand whether what the footage revealed might contradict, complicate or confirm parts of the Trump administration’s narrative, not to mention the rumors and snap interpretations saturating the internet.

In the immediate aftermath of violent events, there are not yet depositions to consult. Police and medical reports may not be immediately obtainable. Those involved almost always refuse to comment. And we can’t command people to hand over evidence. So our team of open-source reporters — digital sleuths and video editors who are experts at finding and analyzing video footage — scour the web and approach eyewitnesses, trying to gather as many videos as we can.

Often we end up with pieces of footage, each capturing only a few seconds of the incident. Some of the videos have been shot at odd angles or from a distance; some reveal only a portion of the scene. The footage is often low resolution. Camera movements are jerky. Sightlines are obstructed.

These fragments can be frustrating. But they can also show us a single moment from multiple angles. And when we assemble, synchronize and meticulously analyze all the pieces, a more complete picture starts to emerge.

We study the visual and audio details at a granular level — hand movements, utterances, gestures, postures, body positions, sightlines — to account for highly nuanced variations in behaviors and actions: The precise instant that an officer reaches for his or her gun, or the exact words spoken by a protester.

Analyzing video at this level of detail — pixel by pixel, frame by frame — is a painstaking and time-consuming process, but a necessary one. It helps ensure we have as complete an understanding of the footage as we can get.

We often approach projects like these with a “hive mind” mentality in which several people assess the same things and cross-check one another’s work. This helps ensure that problems like confirmation bias aren’t creeping in. It’s rare to see solo, bylined work from our team.

We published an initial analysis on Saturday of Mr. Pretti’s killing, and several more since then. In this work, we relied on six pieces of video taken by bystanders. We compiled about a dozen additional videos showing what happened before and after the shooting.

Court papers filed on Monday by Trump administration officials said investigators would be assessing body-camera footage of the Border Patrol agents involved in the shooting. That could open up new perspectives on what happened.

Working with the visuals we had, we debunked the initial suggestion by D.H.S. that Mr. Pretti had approached officers brandishing a weapon

He was clearly holding a phone. We also showed that he didn’t appear to be posing a threat when officers shot at him. We were able to provide clarity on some of those initial questions we had set out to answer, as well as a visual timeline with our colleagues in the Graphics department.

The question of why someone does something is often impossible for us to answer.

In my nine years of doing this work, I’ve learned there can be any number of reasons or explanations that emerge from testimonies or tell-alls: There can be groupthink, or reliance on intuition, both of which can often be wrong. There are people who give, or follow, orders that they shouldn’t. People who insert or assert themselves in ways that aren’t prudent. People who might see threats that aren’t there. Or who overreact to threats that are.

Those are more matters of human nature, not journalism.

What we as journalists can do is understand that when it comes to assessing any complex situation that results in a tragic outcome, it’s critical to exercise caution, check our assumptions and help viewers to see the facts for themselves.

Free link for visuals that accompany the article.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/insi ... =url-share

[dave g]

[ti-amie]

Two federal agents shot Alex Pretti, initial government review reveals

The review makes no mention of Pretti brandishing a weapon, contradicting initial comments from the administration about the killing.
Updated
January 27, 2026 at 7:12 p.m. ESTtoday at 7:12 p.m. EST

By Annie Gowen
,
Kadia Goba
,
Matt Viser
,
Ben Brasch
and
Joanna Slater

MINNEAPOLIS — Two federal officers fired at Alex Pretti during Saturday’s fatal shooting in Minneapolis, according to a statement sent to some members of Congress by the Department of Homeland Security that provides the first official timeline of the deadly encounter that has sent shock waves across the country.

The statement, based on a preliminary review, makes no mention of Pretti brandishing a weapon. That contradicts administration comments in the immediate aftermath of the confrontation, when senior officials described the 37-year-old as a direct threat to federal officers.

Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol commander then overseeing the Minneapolis operation, suggested that Pretti had wanted to “massacre” officers, while Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said he had “committed an act of domestic terrorism.”

Tuesday’s statement said that as agents attempted to take Pretti into custody, he resisted and “a struggle ensued.” One agent yelled multiple times that Pretti had a gun, and then two agents fired their weapons. Pretti was shot repeatedly and declared dead half an hour later at Hennepin County Medical Center, the statement noted.

By Tuesday, the Trump administration was backing away from some of its inflammatory rhetoric about the shooting and had replaced Bovino with border czar Tom Homan, who arrived in Minneapolis to lead the massive immigration enforcement operation underway in the city.

Homan met Tuesday with state and local officials, part of an apparent effort to lower tensions in a city reeling from the killings of Pretti and Renée Good, another American shot by federal officers during an encounter this month. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) described his conversation with Homan as “productive” but reiterated his call for Operation Metro Surge to end as quickly as possible.

As the outrage over Pretti’s killing intensifies, the White House has begun to adopt a somewhat more measured tone in response.

“I think the whole thing is terrible,” President Donald Trump said Tuesday in an interview with Fox News, adding: “I don’t like the fact that he was carrying a gun that was fully loaded. … Bottom line, it was terrible.”

Trump also told reporters that replacing Bovino was not a pullback. Bovino is “a pretty out-there kind of guy,” he said. “And in some cases, that’s good. Maybe it wasn’t good here.”

Stephen Miller, Trump’s White House deputy chief of staff, said Tuesday that the administration is evaluating whether Border Patrol agents “may not have been following” official protocol before the shooting.

The White House had “provided clear guidance” that “the extra personnel that had been sent to Minnesota for force protection should be used for conducting fugitive operations to create a physical barrier between the arrest teams and the disruptors,” Miller said.

While administration officials initially called Pretti a threat, a Washington Post analysis of footage of the incident found that agents had secured a handgun from Pretti and had restrained him on the ground before he was shot multiple times in the back. Local authorities have said he was carrying the weapon lawfully.

The statement sent by DHS agencies to members of Congress and reviewed by The Post does not detail when Pretti was disarmed.

Trump privately showed his dissatisfaction with the situation in Minnesota involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol during an extended meeting with Noem late Monday, according to a person familiar with the meeting who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) on Tuesday described Noem as incompetent and called on her to resign. If she does not step down, Trump should fire her, he said.

“I feel like she is discrediting the law enforcement officers of Homeland Security, whether it’s Border Patrol, ICE, Customs,” Tillis told reporters Tuesday evening. “She is way out of her depth. She needs to get out of the DHS.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voiced similar criticism of Noem and said it was time for her to depart.

“She has, through her words and I think in her actions, she’s taken a direction that has not been helpful to the situation, and I don’t think that it helps the country,” Murkowski said.

Earlier in the day, Trump told reporters that Noem would not step down.

In Minneapolis, where the high temperature was 11 degrees Tuesday, the mood among protesters, ICE watchers and community volunteers was one of cautious optimism mixed with doubt as they digested the news of Bovino’s departure.

Watchers continued their patrols across the city, coordinating in dozens of Signal chats and calling in suspected ICE license plates and reports of enforcement activity, including detentions, by federal agents. Protests continued, including plans for vigils Wednesday at the B.H. Whipple Federal Building just outside the city proper, where people who have been detained are held.

“I’m not optimistic,” said Steve Brackett, 41, a carpenter and community volunteer. “It’s sad, I usually consider myself an optimistic person, but the environment that the federal government has created here breeds paranoia and distrust. I don’t know if anyone here will really breathe easy until these agents are gone. Even then I’ll wonder and fear for wherever they’ll be deployed to next.”

During the late morning, an ICE officer tried to enter the consulate of Ecuador on Central Avenue NE. A statement from the consulate said “emergency protocols” were activated, and the minister of foreign affairs “immediately submitted a note of protest” to the U.S. Embassy in Ecuador.

Minneapolis City Council President Elliott Payne said agents then went to a nearby coffee shop, a haven for ICE observers. According to Payne, they threatened those inside, saying “We’re going to be back and arrest you all.”

On his first day in the city, Homan also met with Gov. Tim Walz (D). The governor “reiterated Minnesota’s priorities,” a statement from Walz’s office said, including “impartial investigations into the Minneapolis shootings involving federal agents, a swift, significant reduction in the number of federal forces in Minnesota, and an end to the campaign of retribution against Minnesota.”

Homan and Walz “agreed on the need for an ongoing dialogue and will continue working toward those goals, which the President also agreed to yesterday,” the governor’s office said Tuesday.

Frey said that he and Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara both met with Homan. “Public safety works best when it’s built on community trust, not tactics that create fear or division,” the mayor wrote in a post on X after the meeting.

On Monday night, Frey said that he had spoken to Trump and that some federal agents would begin leaving the area Tuesday.

Pretti’s sister, Micayla Pretti, in a statement shared by an Associated Press reporter late Monday, described her grief as “a pain no words can fully capture” and expressed exasperation. “When does this end? How many more innocent lives must be lost before we say enough?” she wrote.

The ICU nurse, who cared for veterans, was the third person to be shot by federal immigration authorities in Minneapolis this month.

In a remarkable filing Monday, Minnesota’s chief federal judge demanded that Todd M. Lyons, the acting head of ICE, personally appear in court Friday to explain what the judge said were repeated failures to comply with court orders during enforcement efforts in the state.

The order, which threatened possible contempt proceedings against Lyons, sets up another potential showdown between federal judges and Trump officials.

It was not clear Tuesday how Lyons would respond or whether Justice Department attorneys would seek to block the order in court.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) on Tuesday also said that Lyons and other top federal immigration enforcement leaders should appear before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which he leads.

“Congress has a duty to oversee how billions in taxpayer dollars are being spent to secure the border, enforce the law, and protect the American people,” Paul wrote on X.

Goba, Viser and Brasch reported from Washington and Slater from Williamstown, Massachusetts. Theodoric Meyer, Victoria Bisset, Leo Sands, Jeremy Roebuck, Isaac Arnsdorf, Dylan Wells and Maegan Vazquez contributed to this report.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2 ... ce-bovino/

[ponchi101]

When you have reached the stage in which you don't know what happened in an event that was filmed from various angles, by different people, well... This is totally Orwellian. 2+2 = 5

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

Nicholas Grossman
‪@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social‬
ICE is upset that ICE isn't welcome in restaurants after ICE ordered food at a restaurant, ate it, then arrested restaurant employees, and ICE believes this is someone else's fault, do I have that right?
11:45 AM · Jan 29, 2026

[ti-amie]

Two CBP Agents Identified in Alex Pretti Shooting
The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.

The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.

The records viewed by ProPublica list Ochoa, 43, and Gutierrez, 35, as the shooters during the deadly encounter last weekend that left Pretti dead and ignited massive protests and calls for criminal investigations.

Both men were assigned to Operation Metro Surge, an immigration enforcement dragnet launched in December that sent scores of armed and masked agents across the city.

CBP, which employs both men, has so far refused to release their names and has disclosed few other facts about the deadly incident, which came days after a different immigration agent shot and killed another Minneapolis protester, a 37-year-old mother of three named Renee Good.

Pretti’s killing, and the subsequent secrecy surrounding the agents involved, comes as the country confronts the consequences of President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown. The sweeps in cities across the country have been marked by scenes of violence, against immigrants and U.S. citizens, by agents allowed to hide their identities with masks — an almost unheard of practice in law enforcement. As a result, the public has been kept from one of the chief ways it has to hold officers involved in such altercations accountable: their identity.

Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have called for a transparent investigation into the killing of Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse working at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital.

“We must have a transparent, independent investigation into the Minnesota shooting, and those responsible—no matter their title—must be held accountable,” Republican Sen. John Curtis of Utah wrote on X on Monday.

The agency sent a notice to some members of Congress on Tuesday acknowledging that two agents fired Glock pistols during the altercation that left Pretti dead. That notice does not include the agents’ names. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees CBP, said the agents had been placed on leave after the Jan. 24 shooting. And after a week of protests and calls from lawmakers for a review, the Justice Department said Friday that its Civil Rights Division is investigating the shooting. A DOJ spokesperson did not answer questions, including whether DHS has shared materials, such as body-camera footage, with its investigators.

Ochoa is a Border Patrol agent who joined CBP in 2018. Gutierrez joined in 2014 and works for CBP’s Office of Field Operations. He is assigned to a special response team, which conducts high-risk operations like those of police SWAT units. Records show both men are from South Texas.

In the aftermath of the shooting, Gregory Bovino, who has orchestrated high-intensity immigration sweeps and arrests in a string of Democratic-led cities since early 2025, was removed from his role as Border Patrol commander at large and reassigned to his former post in El Centro, California.

A spokesperson for DHS declined to answer questions about the two agents and referred ProPublica to the FBI. The FBI declined to comment. ProPublica made several attempts to call Ochoa and Gutierrez but neither answered.

Ochoa, who goes by Jesse, graduated from the University of Texas-Pan American with a degree in criminal justice, according to his ex-wife, Angelica Ochoa. A longtime resident of the Rio Grande Valley, Ochoa had for years dreamed of working for the Border Patrol and finally landed a job there, she said. By the time the couple split in 2021, he had become a gun enthusiast with about 25 rifles, pistols and shotguns, Angelica Ochoa said.

DHS’ disclosure to Congress was drawn from an internal review of the agents’ body-camera footage, which has not been released to the public. State investigators, meanwhile, have accused their federal counterparts of blocking them from investigating the shooting.

“We don’t have any information on the shooters,” a Minneapolis city spokesperson said. A spokesperson for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said Tuesday that his office also had “not been given the names, and we don’t have any new information on the investigation.”

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi Monday, accused the Justice Department of covering up evidence in both Pretti’s and Good’s killings.

“DOJ has also blocked prosecutors and agents from cooperating with state law enforcement officials and prevented state officials from accessing evidence,” the letter said.

Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told CNN on Sunday that immigration agents should not be masked.

“They should not be anonymous. They should be identifiable. And they have to have rules of engagement that don’t allow them to terrorize and intimidate, harass and assault U.S. citizens and other people,” he said.

The notice to Congress said that the shooting happened when Pretti resisted arrest after officers were unable to get him and a female protester out of the street.

The CBP officer “attempted to move the woman and Pretti out of the roadway. The woman and Pretti did not move,” the report reads. “CBP personnel attempted to take Pretti into custody. Pretti resisted CBP personnel’s efforts and a struggle ensued.”

According to the report, one agent then yelled “He’s got a gun!” multiple times, and two others “discharged” their Glock pistols.

In videos widely shared online, Pretti can be seen holding up a phone, documenting the movements of federal agents and officers as they roamed the streets of a popular food and arts district. According to news reports, Pretti was concerned about the increasingly volatile siege of the city by federal agents.

In the videos, a masked agent appears to knock a woman to the ground. Pretti comes to her aid, getting between them, at which point the officer deploys pepper spray at his face. Two agents then grab Pretti and pull him to the ground, while more federal personnel pile on. During the struggle, the agents unleash a series of shots — approximately 10 — as onlookers scream.

Pretti was armed at the time of the encounter with a legally owned handgun, according to state and federal officials. Some analyses of bystander video appear to show a federal agent taking Pretti’s gun from his hip before the first shots were fired. The agents’ masks and the chaos of the altercation make it difficult to differentiate one from another.

Those videos appear to contradict the claims by Bovino and other officials, including DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, that Pretti had come to attack agents.

“The agents attempted to disarm the individual, but he violently resisted,” Bovino said in a Jan. 25 news conference. “Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, a Border Patrol agent fired defensive shots.”

In the initial aftermath, Stephen Miller, a top Trump aide and a leading force behind the immigration enforcement operations, called Pretti “a would-be assassin.” But Miller changed tack later in the week when he said in a statement that CBP officers “may not have been following” protocol related to confronting bystanders.

Additional video has surfaced showing Pretti in another altercation with federal agents 11 days before he was killed. The video shows Pretti yelling at the agents, who get in an SUV and start to drive away. Pretti then kicks out the taillight of the vehicle and the agents, who wore protective masks, jump out and tackle him to the ground.

It is unclear if any of the same agents were involved in both incidents.

Lauren Bonds, executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, said that many local and state police departments are “much more transparent” than CBP when officers shoot people. “More and more police departments are choosing to release bodycam footage or dashcam footage within a couple of days.”

Gil Kerlikowske, a former CBP commissioner, told ProPublica that it’s difficult to draw conclusions from the chaos in bystander videos. Still, he said, the shooting might have been prevented. Pretti’s attempt to help the woman knocked to the ground could have been seen as interfering with federal law enforcement, he said. But the decision by the officers to immediately use pepper spray created a chaotic scene that likely contributed to Pretti’s death.

“The other agent could have said ‘don’t interfere’ or ‘stand back,’” Kerlikowske said. “Rather than move immediately to pepper spray, you can arrest the person.” It’s part of a pattern, he said, of federal officers jumping straight to use of force in situations that could have been de-escalated but instead create danger for both agents and their targets.

Pretti’s death, and the federal government’s characterization of the event, sparked immediate protests, spurring thousands of people to go out into frigid conditions in Minneapolis and other American cities. The shooting has also drawn intense criticism from political leaders, including Walz, who has promised his state’s law enforcement will conduct its own criminal investigation.

https://www.propublica.org/article/alex ... -gutierrez

[ti-amie]

Everything is a grift.

derek guy

‪@dieworkwear.bsky.social‬
read online that someone set-up a premium rate phone number where callers get charged $3.99/ min. then they posted flyers in their neighborhood that said "call this number to report illegal aliens," but the number just puts them on hold with music. so far, they've made $17,000
3:28 PM · Feb 1, 2026

only posting this to warn people: don't call these numbers, as they are all scams.

[ponchi101]

Oh, why am I not surprised ONE BIT that the CBP officers that shot Pretti are of immigrant descent. Not one bit.

[ti-amie]