New reports from multiple outlets, including CNN, paint a fuller and more troubling picture of the events leading up to the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on January 24, 2026. The 37-year-old ICU nurse’s death at the hands of federal agents has already sparked national debate, and now it appears Pretti had a physical run-in with federal law enforcement just one week earlier.
According to sources cited by CNN, Pretti was involved in a confrontation with federal agents about seven days before he was killed. During that earlier encounter, he was tackled by officers and suffered a broken rib, the outlet reports. The incident reportedly took place while Pretti was observing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during an enforcement action, and he was released at the scene after the injury.
The report also suggests that Pretti’s name was already known to federal law enforcement prior to the shooting, due in part to guidance given to agents in Minneapolis to document information about “protesters and agitators” during the ongoing federal immigration enforcement operation. It remains unclear whether that documentation played a role in the fatal encounter days later.
Pretti’s death itself has been the subject of conflicting accounts. Federal officials characterized the encounter as involving a man who approached agents with a firearm, while multiple witnesses and video evidence have called parts of that narrative into question. Video captured by bystanders shows Pretti filming officers and attempting to assist a woman prior to being pepper-sprayed, subdued, and ultimately shot. Witness statements and frame-by-frame analyses indicate that Pretti was not seen brandishing a weapon before the shooting.
