01/25/2026
Those representing us in Congress are silent on this abuse of power.
Congressman Rob Bresnahan Jr. Congressman Dan Meuser Senator Dave McCormick U.S. Senator John Fetterman
Alex Jeffrey Pretti was a 37-year-old nurse, a caretaker of veterans, a man whose colleagues said he was "quick with a joke" and whose "default look was a smile." He spent his career in the ICU at the Minneapolis VA, holding the hands of dying soldiers, easing their pain, saving lives when he could. "He was a super nice, super helpful guy," his colleague said, describing Alex as an "outstanding" nurse. His father described a son who "cared about people deeply and he was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis."
This morning, Alex went to help a woman who had been pepper sprayed in the face by a Border Patrol agent. When the agent violently shoved another woman, who had dared to blow a whistle from several feet away, Alex moved to place his body between the women and the agent.
The agent immediately pepper sprayed Alex directly in the face. At that moment, both of Alex's hands were clearly visible -- one holding his phone, the other raised to shield his face. The same agent then grabbed Alex, who was clearly disoriented from the pepper spray and likely blinded, by the back and dragged him into the street.
Seven agents then swarmed Alex, pinning him to the frozen pavement and beating him as he struggled. Eight seconds after he was pinned, an agent yelled that he had a gun -- a gun he was legally carrying and had never attempted to draw. One agent pulled the weapon from Alex's body while others held him down.
With Alex restrained and his arms pinned, another agent aimed at his back and fired. A second agent drew his weapon and fired too. At least ten shots in five seconds. They kept firing even after Alex lay motionless in the street.
All of this was captured on multiple eyewitness videos.
This was not law enforcement. This was an ex*****on of a man in the street by federal agents.
And worse, this is not an isolated incident. This is a pattern of state-sanctioned murder.
What happened to Alex this morning follows an almost identical script to what happened to Renee Good seventeen days ago on another Minneapolis street.
In both cases, federal agents initiated confrontations with people who posed no threat whatsoever. Renee was sitting in her car. Alex was holding a phone. Neither was obstructing anything. Neither was violent. And in both cases, agents chose aggression and escalation as their first response -- a fundamental betrayal of the de-escalation principles that separate law enforcement from state-sanctioned thugs.
In both cases, agents deployed lethal force in situations where it was nowhere near justified. Renee was shot three times through her car window as she tried to drive away -- one bullet tearing through her head from temple to temple. Alex was shot ten times in the street while pinned down by half a dozen federal agents.
And in both cases, before the victims' blood had dried, the Trump administration's propaganda machine roared to life with an identical playbook: smear the dead, lionize the killers, bury the truth.
After Renee's killing, Trump called her a "professional agitator." Noem branded her a "domestic terrorist." Vance called her death "a tragedy of her own making" and declared that the agent who killed her "deserves a debt of gratitude."
Today, within hours of Alex's killing, Stephen Miller was already calling him a "domestic terrorist" and a "would-be assassin" who "tried to assassinate federal law enforcement."
Noem absurdly claimed the agents "took actions to defend their lives" -- from a man who was pinned under a pile of them. It looked, she said, like "an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage" and "kill law enforcement." That is Noem's take on an ICU nurse, holding a phone, shot while pinned on the ground.
Trump himself declared the agents who killed Alex "patriots" -- the same word he used for the January 6th insurrectionists he pardoned on his first day back in office -- while accusing Governor Walz and Mayor Frey of "inciting insurrection" for daring to criticize the killing.
A nurse who spent his career saving lives. A man whose father said he was bearing witness because he "cared about people deeply." An American citizen who went to help two women in distress by shielding them with his own body. Now, according to the Trump administration, a terrorist who deserved what he got -- and the men who shot him in the back are heroes.
The lies are breathtaking in their audacity. They think Americans are too stupid to believe their own eyes over their blatant lies.
The Department of Homeland Security claims Alex "approached Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun" with intent to "do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement."
Video analyzed frame-by-frame by the New York Times tells a completely different story: "Footage of the encounter shows the man was holding a phone in his hand, not a gun, when federal agents took him to the ground and shot him."
Alex was a lawful gun owner with a valid permit to carry, as is his right under Minnesota law and the Second Amendment that this administration claims to revere. Every piece of video evidence shows he never touched his weapon. He was holding a cell phone when agents attacked him.
Being in lawful possession of a firearm is not cause for a federal agent to assault you. It is not cause for a federal agent to pepper-spray you. It is not cause for a federal agent to pin you to the frozen ground, beat you, and pump ten bullets into your body while you lie motionless.
And now comes the final, most damning stage of the pattern: the cover-up.
Today, when the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension attempted to access the crime scene at the request of Minneapolis police, federal agents physically blocked them. State investigators -- the people whose job it is to determine what happened -- were prevented from doing their work.
This is exactly what happened after Renee's killing. The FBI initially agreed to a joint investigation with state authorities. Then, within hours, they reversed course -- seizing sole control of all evidence, all witness interviews, all case materials. Minnesota was frozen out entirely.
When an FBI agent tried to pursue a civil rights investigation into the shooting, she was pressured to drop it and reclassify the case as an investigation into assault on the officer. She resigned on Friday rather than comply.
Six federal prosecutors in Minnesota have now resigned in protest. The DOJ has declared there is "no basis" for a civil rights investigation into Renee's death -- even as they push to investigate her grieving widow.
The pattern is undeniable. Agents escalate. Agents kill. The administration lies. Then they bury the evidence, protect the killers, and investigate the victims.
And they've made clear this is all by design.
After Renee's death, Vance declared her killer "protected by absolute immunity" -- just doing his job.
Stephen Miller delivered an even more chilling message directly to ICE agents, which DHS amplified on its official channels: "To all ICE officers: You have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties, and anybody who lays a hand on you, or tries to stop you, or tries to obstruct you, is committing a felony. You have immunity to perform your duties and no one -- no city official, no state official, no illegal alien, no leftist agitator or domestic insurrectionist -- can prevent you from fulfilling your legal obligations and duties."
There is no such thing as "federal immunity" to kill American citizens. Every legal expert who has weighed in has said the same thing: this is a lie. But legal accuracy isn't the point.
The point is the message to agents on the ground: You are above the law. No one can touch you. Do what you want.
And so they have. These agents are now completely unleashed. No amount of violence is enough for this administration to stop. To investigate. To hold anyone accountable.
As Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy said: "ICE is a brutal invading force that acts without accountability or the most basic respect for human dignity or life. These agents of violence need to be brought to justice."
Two American citizens are now dead at the hands of federal agents on Minneapolis streets. The administration's response? Call them terrorists. Block investigations. Dare anyone to do something about it.
This is what happens when you double an agency's size in a year -- from 10,000 to over 22,000 agents -- while slashing training from six months to as little as six weeks. Traditional interviews have been replaced by online applications and provisional clearances. Recruits are rushed to the academy before background checks are complete. More than a third have failed basic fitness tests. Roughly half have failed open-book exams on constitutional law.
Former ICE Director John Sandweg described what happened after a similar rushed hiring process at Customs and Border Protection in the late 2000s: "We ended up getting individuals who just weren't well suited for some of the stressful encounters you have as a law enforcement agent. They resorted to force too quickly. They resorted to force that was unreasonable."
Poorly vetted. Poorly trained. Heavily armed. The worst of the worst turned loose on American streets with no restraints and no accountability.
This cannot stand.
The occupation of an American city by 3,000 out-of-control federal paramilitaries cannot stand.
Executing Americans in the street cannot stand.
Defaming the dead cannot stand.
Obstructing justice cannot stand.
This is not law enforcement. This is not immigration policy. This is authoritarianism descending on American streets -- wrapped in a flag, shielded by lies, and enabled by every coward who stays silent.
As Mayor Jacob Frey demanded today: "How many more residents, how many more Americans, need to die or get badly hurt for this operation to end?"
The hypocrisy of those defending these atrocities while wrapping themselves in the flag has never been more obscene. Without the rule of law, without transparency, without accountability, there is no America. Only raw power, unchecked.
Those still making excuses for ICE terrorizing an American city have shown exactly who they are. History will record them as what they are: enablers of authoritarianism, drunk on cruelty, who cheered as this nation was pushed to the brink.
One day -- maybe sooner than you think -- you will be asked what you did during this time. By your children. By your grandchildren. By history itself.
Alex Pretti died a hero. He saw two women being attacked and he stepped in to help. He was murdered by his government for it.
Sitting on the sidelines is not an option. The time to show which side you're on is now.
--> Here's how to take action against this lawlessness and the militarization of U.S. cities: Congress must fund the Department of Homeland Security by January 30, and spending bills require 60 votes in the Senate.
* Call your Senators at (202) 224-3121. Demand no DHS funding until ICE and Border Patrol are reined in and an independent investigation is launched into the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
* Call your Representative and demand real oversight of these lawless agencies -- and an independent investigation into the killings of American citizens by DHS agents.
To support the GoFundMe campaign for Alex's family, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/alex-pretti-is-an-american-hero
To join with others in your community who are standing up for democracy and the rule of law, you can find an Indivisible in your area at https://indivisible.org/groups
Supporting civil rights organizations like the ACLU that challenge DHS in court is one of the most effective ways to constrain their expanding power -- learn more at https://www.aclu.org/issues/immigrants-rights/immigrants-rights-and-detention
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The New York Times has released frame-by-frame video analysis bringing together all observer footage of Alex Pretti's murder: https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000010668660/new-video-analysis-reveals-flawed-and-fatal-decisions-in-shooting-of-pretti.html?smid=url-share
For books for children and teens about the importance of standing up for truth, decency, and justice, even in dark times, visit our blog post, "Dissent Is Patriotic: 50 Books About Women Who Fought for Change," at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=14364
For books for tweens and teens about girls living under real-life authoritarian regimes throughout history that will help them appreciate how precious democracy truly is, visit our blog post "The Fragility of Freedom: Mighty Girl Books About Life Under Authoritarianism" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=32426
For children's books that encourage empathy and understanding of Mighty Girl immigrants of the past and present, visit our blog post, "A New Land, A New Life: 25 Mighty Girl Books About the Immigrant Experience" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=12855
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