Donald Trump walks at the White House in Washington. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon
I was born and raised in Minnesota. One of my childhood homes in south Minneapolis is less than a mile from the scene of last Saturday’s brutal Border Patrol killing. The victim was 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a US citizen born in Illinois and a registered ICU nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital.
Pretti’s crime: He was “Minnesota nice.”
Before proceeding further, please watch this New York Timesvideo.
But be warned, the footage is violent, graphic, and disturbing:
Similarly, a detailed CNN compilation of bystander videos confirms that Border Patrol officers took Pretti’s gun before shooting him an estimated 10 times:
And USA Today also offered a second-by-second analysis:
Now contrast what you just observed with the Trump administration’s four-step playbook for avoiding accountability: Lie, double-down, deflect, and cover-up.
Step #1: Lie
Almost immediately, the Department of Homeland Security issued a false statement exonerating Border Patrol officers and blaming Pretti for his death:
- “At 9:05 AM CT,… an individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun….”
No. Pretti approached the officers with a cellphone as he filmed their encounter with two protesters. Then he tried to aid a protester whom officers had shoved to the ground.
- “The officers attempted to disarm the suspect, but the armed suspect violently resisted.”
No. The officers didn’t even know that Pretti had a gun until seven of them had already swarmed, pepper-sprayed, and wrestled him to the ground. Then one of the officers exclaimed with surprise, “He has a gun!”
At that point, several officers were on top of Pretti. A gun matching the description of the one that DHS said Pretti owned (and for which he had a permit in the open-carry state of Minnesota) emerged from the group. After Pretti had been disarmed, an officer shot him in the back at close range. As the officer continued firing, another officer shot Pretti as he lay on the ground.
The agents fired a total of at least 10 shots.
Step #2: Double Down
During a six-minute press appearance, Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino doubled-down on the lies. He said that an “individual approached Border Patrol agents with a nine-millimeter semi-automatic handgun.”
No. It was a cellphone.
“The agents attempted to disarm this individual, but he violently resisted.”
No. Pretti was on the ground when officers noticed his gun and took it.
“Fearing for his life and lives and safety of fellow officers, a Border Patrol agent fired defensive shots.”
No. Two agents fired a total of 10 shots as Pretti lay on the street with his hands over his head.
“The suspect also had two loaded magazines and no accessible ID.”
I don’t know what an “accessible ID” is, but Minnesota is an open-carry state and Pretti had a permit to own the gun.
“This looked like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”
There is no evidence supporting that claim.
“The officer was highly trained and had been serving as a Border Patrol agent for eight years. The officer has extensive training as a range safety officer and less lethal officer…”
Two officers fired a total of 10 shots at a man who had been disarmed. What about the second shooter? And what training recommends firing 10 shots at a defenseless US citizen lying on the ground?
Bovino then took questions but refused to answer them:
Q: “When did agents learn that he had a gun, and did he ever brandish that weapon at them?
Bovino: “This situation again is evolving. This situation is under investigation. Those facts will come to light. This particular incident is being investigated, just like we investigate other similar incidents like we’ve done over the past several years. It’s in the hands of professionals as facts will come to light.”
The videos show that Pretti never brandished a weapon at anyone. As for an investigation, the federal government had refused to allow Minnesota officials to participate after an officer killed Renee Nicole Good two weeks earlier. But this time, Minnesota officials took two extraordinary steps: the state obtained a warrant to search the public street where the officers had killed Pretti; and a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order barring federal officials from altering or destroying evidence.
Q: “Did he have an additional gun, or was the gun removed from the scene?... From the video, it doesn’t seem like he pulled a gun on anyone…. When did the gun come out?”
Bovino: “Again, this situation is evolving. This is under investigation. Those facts will come to light…”
The gun never “came out” until Border Patrol officers discovered and removed it after forcing Pretti to the ground.
Step #3: Deflect – Blame the Victim … and Anyone Else
Trump’s deputy chief of staff and the architect of Trump’s immigration policy, Stephen Miller, tripled down on the lies. Others quickly followed.
- Miller said Pretti was a “domestic terrorist” and “would-be assassin.”
- Trump blamed Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) for “inciting insurrection.” He posted that they were leading a “subversive effort” against law enforcement “the likes of which we have not seen, probably, since the Civil War.”
- Attorney General Pam Bondioffered Walz a deal. One of her demands revealed the true motive behind Trump’s aggressive immigration surge in Minnesota: leverage. Trump is looking ahead at the November midterm elections, doesn’t like what he sees, and is preparing to upend them. That’s why Bondi told Walz to turn over the state’s voter rolls and maybe it “will help bring back law and order to Minnesota.” (A few days earlier, Trump’s Justice Department had already subpoenaed numerous Minnesota officials, including Walz, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul.)
- Homeland Security Secretary Kristia Noem parroted Bovino’s lies that Pretti “arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.” She said that her assertion of “domestic terrorism” was just “the facts.”
- Vice President JD Vanceposted that the events in Minneapolis were “engineered chaos” caused by “far left agitators, working with local authorities.”
- On Fox News, FBI Director Kash Patel characterized Pretti as a violent actor.
Step #4: Repeat – and Cover-Up as Needed
Trump’s minions had falsely smeared Renee Nicole Good as a “domestic terrorist” too. Then the Justice Department announced that the civil rights division would not even investigate whether her killer had used excessive force — as it typically has done in such situations. Instead, the Department would investigate the victim and her partner. Days later, six senior career federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned over the issue.
Noem announced that DHS would lead the Pretti investigation — with assistance from the FBI.
Bovino’s “Choices”
In a press conference on Sunday, Jan. 25, Bovino lectured Minnesotans on “choices,” suggesting that Pretti’s choices led to his death. But Pretti chose only to exercise his First and Second Amendment rights. For that, Trump’s newly expanded paramilitary organization chose to execute him in broad daylight. Bovino, Trump, and Trump’s sycophants chose to lie about it.
In the aftermath of Pretti’s killing, thousands of Minnesotans also made a choice: In sub-zero temperatures, they protested the federal government’s aggressive occupation of Minneapolis that had led to yet another death. They know that the whole world is watching. And if I know anything about Minnesotans, they will prevail.
- Steven J. Harper is an attorney, adjunct professor at Northwestern University Law School, and author of several books, including Crossing Hoffa -- A Teamster's Story and The Lawyer Bubble -- A Profession in Crisis. He has been a regular columnist for Moyers on Democracy, Dan Rather's News and Guts, and The American Lawyer. Follow him at https://thelawyerbubble.com
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