Minneapolis shooting video analysis details killing of Alex Pretti

Warning: This report contains videos showing graphic violence.

Alex Pretti was shot and killed by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis on Saturday, Jan. 24, the second fatal shooting by federal agents in the city this month.

Pretti, a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident and U.S. citizen, is the third person shot by federal agents in the city in January. Pretti's death follows the fatal shooting of Renee Good weeks earlier on Jan. 7 by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. A third person, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, was shot on Jan. 14 but survived.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said at a news conference that Pretti "approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun." Noem described Pretti as "brandishing" and attacking officers, stating that he "committed an act of domestic terrorism."

Pretti, who authorities confirmed had a permit to carry a gun, is seen holding a phone, and not wielding a weapon in multiple videos recorded by witnesses and bystanders.

Footage circulating on social media since show the event from multiple angles. This is what we know so far:

Timeline of Alex Pretti's fatal shooting

At 9:03 a.m. on Jan. 24, police received a report of a shooting involving federal law enforcement in the area of East 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue, said Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara at a news conference. O'Hara described police arriving to find a man with multiple gunshot wounds who was transported to a local hospital and pronounced dead.

One video, shot from a passing car, shows Pretti with a phone in his hand:

Here's a second-by-second breakdown of another video, seen below, that was posted to social media by Drop Site News. All times approximate.

0:10 Pretti can be seen holding up his phone, apparently filming an agent interacting with two women on the street.

0:12 Pretti steps into the street to wave a car past while continuing to film.

0:27 An agent is heard yelling at one of the women and approaches them. The video points toward the ground.

The agent can be seen shoving the woman in another video.

0:33 Pretti can be seen apparently leading the woman away.

0:35 The agent shoves the second woman, who falls to the ground.

0:36 Pretti steps between the agent and the second woman on the ground. He is sprayed with what appears to be a chemical irritant and is shoved by the first agent as other agents approach.

0:40 The agent continues to spray Pretti with irritant.

0:47 Pretti and the woman on the ground are separated by the agents and Pretti is held to the ground.

0:59 There are at least six agents present as Pretti is held down on his hands and knees. One appears to strike at him repeatedly with an object in the direction of his head.

Another video shows this moment from across the street:

1:00 Someone can be heard yelling that he has a gun.

1:01 One agent can be seen drawing his gun.

1:02 A shot rings out. Then three more in quick succession. Then another.

1:06 The agents back away and unload additional shots at Pretti as he lies on the ground.

You can watch the video for yourself below. Warning: it contains graphic violence.

Did Pretti have a gun when he was shot?

USA TODAY spoke to Rob Pincus, a former law enforcement officer with nearly three decades of experience training law enforcement and military, and the executive director of Personal Defense Network.

Pincus said he can see the agent leaving the scrum holding "the gun we have all now seen in the pictures released by DHS saying this is the gun that they're saying agents were threatened with."

"We can clearly see in the video, one of the agents reached down and removed that gun from his waistline, what presumably is a holster on his belt line," said Pincus.

"Shortly thereafter we hear the first shot."

Rob Doar, an attorney and president of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, told KTSP in Minneapolis that the firearm the federal agent emerges with has the same optic and coloring as the one in an image posted by the White House on social media and displayed during a news conference with Noem.

At 0:20 in the video below, an agent in a gray jacket appears to approach the scrum with empty hands, then emerge at 0:37 holding what appears to be a gun just before the first shot is fired.

This moment can be seen from another perspective in the footage below.

Agents are later seen attempting to render aid at 0:19 in the video below.

What happened before the shooting?

Pincus told USA TODAY he was paying close attention to Pretti's body language as he examined the videos.

"Even in the way he responds and reacts to getting physically touched and then pepper sprayed, it's clear to me that he's not attacking, confronting or trying to escalate," said Pincus.

"There are several angles that show his arm going up as if to say 'I'm not a threat, back off' with his back turned towards the agent that's spraying him and what would presumably be his gun hand up in the air with his palm outward," Pincus continues. "Not a fist, not a grab, not a shove, and clearly turning away from the pepper spray with his phone in the other hand."

"Then he's grabbed and pulled back into the street and at that point I don't think he's making any decisions. I certainly didn't see any indication that he was reaching for his gun in any way."

Pincus also examined the video up to and then following the moment when the agent removes the gun from Alex's waistband looking for what he calls pre-attack cues, such as the elbows coming away from the body.

"I didn't see any attacking, assertive, aggressive action towards the agents prior to him being drug out into the street and thrown to the ground," said Pincus. "Nor did I see any action that indicated he was reaching towards his gun prior to the gun being clearly secured and removed from that pile by the agent."

What about the extra magazine?

Several officials including President Donald Trump and Kristi Noem have questioned why Pretti was carrying extra ammunition. "This looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement," said Noem during a news conference. "What is that all about?"Trump posted on social media.

"Carrying a spare magazine or two is a standard practice for all trained and responsible concealed carriers," said Pincus, adding that he regularly instructs students to consider bringing a spare magazine if they are carrying a gun in public. He said this is not specifically because they might need more ammunition, but also because when a semi-automatic firearm fails, one of the most reliable ways to get it back into operation is to remove the magazine, clear the gun, insert a new magazine, and chamber another round.

"The idea that carrying a spare magazine is somehow indicative of wanting to massacre federal agents or someone seeking to do quote unquote maximum damage, conceptually, those claims are unfair and uninformed," said Pincus.

What could have been done differently?

Pincus told USA TODAY that that he looks at events like these first and foremost from the law enforcement perspective, asking himself these questions:

• "As someone who's taught law enforcement for coming up on three decades now, did they do what I trained people to do?
• "How I would want someone I have trained to have acted?"
• "What are we going to say to the next group of cops to prevent whatever the negative outcomes were?"

Given that he has also spent a significant amount of time teaching armed civilians over the last several decades, Pincus said also asks himself the following:

• "Is what this guy did what I would have recommended?"
• "Is this something I would have wanted my students to do?"
• "What can I tell future students to keep them from getting shot in that situation?"

"Having made the decision to be armed and having made the decision to try to record what was happening in the streets, I honestly don't know what Alex could have done to have avoided getting shot. I put a lot, if not all, of the responsibility for the end result of this event on the agents involved," said Pincus.

Pincus said that Pretti appears to have been drawn into this confrontation he was witnessing and was compelled to intervene and attempt to protect people that he saw as being attacked or bullied by the agents.

"It's a very human response," said Pincus. "As someone who wants to be able to protect themselves, somebody who's a caregiver, somebody who works professionally as a nurse, he's going to see somebody getting victimized in his mind and be compelled to intervene. However, you just did that while wearing a lethal weapon and that escalates it."

Pincus said that while Pretti knew he was bringing a gun to that event, every one of the agents knew they they too were bringing at least one gun.

"Merely hearing a gunshot is never going to be a justification for an agent shooting a suspect," said Pincus. He also described the potential for "behavioral or psychological sympathetic shooting" where an officer fires after their partner does, or "neurological sympathetic shooting" where one clamps down after being startled with a finger on the trigger before actually deciding to shoot.

"I think that a lot of these situations we've seen on video are the agents, whether they're wearing Border Patrol or ICE logos at the time, creating and escalating physical confrontations out of frustration and anger," said Pincus.

"You've got officers who are coming across the street to engage with observers and there may be annoyances or frustration," he continues. "Then it escalates outside of anything they probably intended to have happen. I don't buy into the narrative that the ICE agents are out there looking to murder American citizens, but I do think that they are using bad tactics and a general lack of discipline that leads to these confrontations, which is what we saw with Renee Goode and now what we've seen with Alex."

This is a developing story and may be updated.