Pretti was shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis on Jan. 24 amid protests over increased immigration enforcement in the city
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Alex Pretti.Credit : va.gov
The official cause of death for Alex Pretti, the man shot and killed by federal agents amid protests against increased immigration enforcement activity in Minneapolis on Jan. 24, has been released.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s office released the results of its inquiry into Pretti’s death on Monday, Feb. 2. The cause of death was listed as “multiple gunshot wounds,” and the manner of death is listed as “homicide,” according to the medical examiner’s report obtained by PEOPLE.
The medical examiner’s report also noted that Pretti was “shot by law enforcement officer(s).” No other “significant conditions” that could have contributed to his death were listed on the report.
Pretti, 37, was killed on Jan. 24 as he stood among a group of protesters with his phone in his hand. According to DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin, the shooting occurred as law enforcement officers were conducting a “targeted operation in Minneapolis against an illegal alien wanted for violent assault.”
The agency claimed that Pretti “approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun” and “violently resisted” attempts to disarm him before an agent “fired defensive shots” at the suspect.
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Alex Pretti.US Department of Veteran Affairs
Footage of the shooting analyzed by The New York Times seems to contradict DHS’s account, showing Pretti standing among a group of protesters with both hands visible. As agents deploy pepper spray at the group, Pretti is seen holding his phone in one hand and being pinned down on the sidewalk moments later, without holding or pulling a weapon, the footage seems to show.
A witness to the shooting later said that Pretti was “trying to help a woman” who had been pepper-sprayed by agents in the moments before his death.
Just 11 days before he was killed, an altercation between Pretti and federal agents was captured on video. Pretti was seen kicking a federal vehicle before an agent pushed him to the ground in the video.
“A week before Alex was gunned down in the street — despite posing no threat to anyone — he was violently assaulted by a group of ICE agents,” Steve Schleicher, the attorney for the Pretti family, said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE. “Nothing that happened a full week before could possibly have justified Alex’s killing at the hands of ICE on Jan 24.”
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On Jan. 30, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division announced that it would launch an investigation into Pretti’s death, reported NPR. The Department of Homeland Security is also conducting its own separate investigation into the shooting.
In addition to the federal inquiries, state authorities in Minnesota “haven’t ruled out” bringing charges against the agents involved in the shooting, according to NPR.
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