Minneapolis’ anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protests have continued to intensify. Over the weekend, several clashes between protesters and ICE agents occurred, one that resulted in 37-year-old Minnesota local Alex Pretti, who was carrying a legally concealed handgun, being shot and killed by several ICE agents during a federal immigration enforcement operation on January 24.
The reporting on the circumstances surrounding Pretti’s death has been conflicting. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, as well as other Trump administration officials, have framed the ICE officers’ actions as justified.
In her official statement, Noem said, “An individual approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9-millimeter semi-automatic handgun. The officers attempted to disarm this individual, but the armed suspect reacted violently. Fearing for his life and for the lives of his fellow officers around him, an agent fired defensive shots.”
She further described the incident as “a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage and kill law enforcement,” labeling it “domestic terrorism.”
Multiple bystander videos, forensic audio analyses, and video analyses and reporting from major outlets including the New York Times, BBC, and NPR, however, directly contradict these claims. This evidence indicates Pretti was already pinned to the ground, disarmed (his concealed handgun removed from his waistband during the scuffle), and no longer posing a threat when agents fired numerous rounds.
As of now, many American citizens appear genuinely confused and divided about what really happened in Alex Pretti’s shooting due to the sharply conflicting narratives.
On this episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn offers some insight to the truth behind Alex Pretti’s shooting — examining the conflicting claims, the chaotic scuffle, and why rushing to judgment or prosecution could miss the bigger picture of escalating unrest.
“First of all, what Noem said is not true,” says Glenn frankly.
“If you want to say technically he approached carrying a 9mm, he did, but it was holstered and in his back. And you have a right to carry a gun at a protest. … It is perfectly legal and constitutionally protected,” he adds.
While it was unwise for Pretti to carry a gun and get involved with federal officers, it was not technically illegal because he never actually pulled the gun, Glenn explains.
On the other hand, the officers who shot Pretti were in an extremely “chaotic situation,” Glenn pivots, noting that these men are on edge after enduring ceaseless violence, doxxing, and threats from protesters.
Video footage captures a tangle of people — officers in tactical gear, one in plainclothes, Pretti, and other protesters — in a wrestling match on the ground. The officer who discovered Pretti’s handgun and removed it from his waistband was wearing plainclothes, meaning bystanders — including the ones who yelled “gun” — could have easily mistaken him for an armed protester.
Further there’s a good chance agents in the scuffle with Pretti didn’t see the plainclothes officer remove the handgun and could have assumed that the people yelling “gun” were referring to Pretti.
Glenn says that the civil rights protests spearheaded by Martin Luther King Jr. were only successful because they were peaceful. Protesters didn’t bring guns to demonstrations; they didn’t escalate confrontations with police; and they didn’t intentionally create chaos.
“King would have let [Pretti] rot in prison and wouldn’t have marched for that guy because he had a gun, because he made the rest of the movement look dangerous. Even though he had a right to have a gun, Martin Luther King would have said, ‘You don’t bring a gun. You don’t push back. You don’t do it because that’s the way peaceful protests win,’” says Glenn, “and everybody who knows anything about protesting knows this.”
“The left, they’ve been preaching Martin Luther King forever. They know this is not the tactic of Martin Luther King. This is the tactic that escalates, not de-escalates, things.”
All evidence considered, Glenn falls somewhere in the middle on Pretti’s death.
“We have to be very careful with our words and speak the truth at all times, even if it hurts our side,” he says.
“I don’t think he should have been shot, but I also don’t think they should prosecute [the officers who shot him] because it’s a chaotic situation. … It’s just a really nasty, bad situation.”
To hear more of Glenn’s analysis, watch the video above.
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