We still don't know who killed Alex Pretti. We do know who must pay

Days after the brutal execution of 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, we still don’t know the identities of the masked ICE agents who shot him dead.

They fled the scene and are nowhere to be found. Trump’s Department of Homeland Security is shrouding their whereabouts in secrecy.

After much video analysis by legal experts and major news organizations, it became very clear, very quickly, that Pretti was pinned down by a group of agents and disarmed. Then, posing a threat to no one, he was executed, shot 10 times.

An analysis by the New York Timesidentifies two agents as having shot all of those bullets. Shortly after agents had pinned Pretti down, an agent who had pepper-sprayed him is seen hitting Pretti’s head with the pepper spray canister.

The agents then discover Pretti has a gun and they can be heard yelling “he’s got a gun!” At that point one agent quickly disarms Pretti — who is immobilized — taking the gun and walking across the street. At the same time, another agent pulls out his gun and fires the first shot at Pretti. The shooter is not in any way threatened, as Pretti can’t move, and the shooter is at a vantage point to see Pretti’s gun holster empty.

That agent brutally then fires four more shots into Pretti’s back, for no explicable reason. Another agent, the one who first pepper-sprayed Pretti, then begins firing shots at Pretti, while the first shooter fires more. In total, these two men fired 10 shots, as Pretti is immobile and unarmed.

All the agents left the scene shortly after the execution in broad daylight.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, within minutes, claimed Pretti brandished a weapon, as did Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino. This was quickly proven false by video, as Pretti never had his gun out of his holster and only held a phone. He is a licensed gun owner in a state that allows open carry.

Noem dropped that claim but outrageously called Pretti a “domestic terrorist” — just as she slandered Renee Good, killed two weeks before by an ICE agent — with “intent” to do damage, while she offered no evidence. Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino repeated this line even on CNN the next day. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, meanwhile, put a post on X, claiming that Pretti was a “would-be assassin,” which Vice President JD Vance and other administration officials instantly shared.

All of that followed Donald Trump posting a photo of Pretti’s gun within minutes after the shooting, commenting that this is “the gunman’s gun, loaded (with two additional full magazines!), and ready to go — What is that all about?” as if Trump hasn’t defended his MAGA thugs bringing guns to protests, including his own “Stop the Steal” rally after which they attacked the Capitol at his command.

All of that has now fallen apart.

The NRA and other gun groups have expressed outrage at the rhetoric around the shooting coming from Trump officials. The far right’s worst nightmare is the federal government disarming a gun owner — and then executing that person. Republicans are speaking out, calling for hearings. A very scared Trump is backtracking, suddenly talking to Gov. Tim Walz and removing Bovino from Minnesota. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stunningly refused to endorse Miller’s claim calling Pretti an assassin — though she didn’t condemn it either, saying she was waiting for an investigation.

Yet right now we still don’t know who the shooters are — the killers who should be charged with murder — as they’re being protected by the Trump administration. More than that, the Trump officials also initially tried to cover up the crime, even if it has now unravelled.

As investigative journalist Marcy Wheeler reports, by lying about Pretti and calling him a “domestic terrorist,” Noem is a co-conspirator. So are Bovino and Stephen Miller. They’ve covered up and interfered in a state investigation. They should not only be fired — or, in the case of Noem, impeached, as some Democrats are calling for. They should be charged with crimes.

Democrats in the Senate have refused to fund ICE, which could trigger a partial government shutdown, unless we see changes to ICE, including making it mandatory that the federal government cooperate with states on investigations of violence by ICE agents. That needs to include investigations of Renee Good’s killer, the ICE agent Jonathan Ross.

And Trump, it goes without saying, must be held accountable. The first thing Democrats must do upon taking the House is to begin impeachment proceedings, no matter what the outcome. The American people need to see justice for Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who died fighting for the rights of all of us.

• Michelangelo Signorile writes The Signorile Report, a free and reader-supported Substack. If you’ve valued reading The Signorile Report, consider becoming a paid subscriber and supporting independent, ad-free opinion journalism.