Pair testify that Pretti did not hold weapon and was trying to help woman federal agents had shoved to the ground

Two witnesses to the killing of Alex Pretti have said in sworn testimony that the 37-year-old intensive care nurse was not brandishing a weapon when he approached federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday, contradicting a claim made by Trump administration officials as they sought to cast the shooting of a prone man as an act of self-defense.

Their accounts came in sworn affidavits that were filed in federal court in Minnesota late Saturday, just hours after Pretti’s killing, as part of a lawsuit brought by the ACLU on behalf of Minneapolis protesters against Kristi Noem and other homeland security officials directing the immigration crackdown in the city.

One witness is a woman who filmed the clearest video of the fatal shooting; the other is a physician who lives nearby and said they were initially prevented by federal officers from rendering medical aid to the gunshot victim.

The names of both witnesses were redacted in the publicly available filings.

The ACLU is not fucking around here. But it’s sad that we’ve gotten to the point that emergency filings like this are necessary.

  • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
    9·
    2 days ago

    Seems like the ACLU had a plan this time. Good. I don’t know if this particular strategy will work but I do think we need to do more to plan ahead with an overarching strategy to stop this madness rather than just reacting.

  • Archangel1313@lemmy.ca
    91·
    2 days ago

    At this point, I think it’s fair to raise doubts that he even had a gun with him at all. These assholes have lied about every other detail…why wouldn’t they also lie about him having a gun?

    • Powderhorn@beehaw.orgOPMEnglish
      11·
      2 days ago

      Even if he did, so what? He was licensed to carry, did not brandish and was attempting to enjoy his rights under the First and Second amendments.

      I dislike guns. But I’m in Texas, so I simply presume that I’m in a space with people packing while in public. Still, here’s a nurse who felt a need to go through the legal system to have a gun on him in case of, well …

      On the other side, we have poor training for ICE and a shockingly high rejection rate for the quality they manage to attract.

      I’m going to side with the nurse every time. And whether he had a holstered gun is irrelevant to the fact that he was murdered.

      • Archangel1313@lemmy.ca
        4·
        1 day ago

        Yeah. The 2nd amendment is great…in theory. In practice, it’s still a death sentence for anyone carrying while interacting with the police…and it’s still the perfect “get out of jail free” card for any cop they encounter, since there’s no way for them to know ahead of time whether or not they were “legally” armed.

        As much as people like to pretend that it will protect them from the police…the 2nd amendment will never work to prevent the cops from gunning you down as soon as they find out you have a weapon. Whether the gun was legal or not, they will still use the “I feared for my life” defense, as a way of escaping any consequences.

        • Powderhorn@beehaw.orgOPMEnglish
          6·
          1 day ago

          The irony here is rich. They’re supposedly supposed to be ensuring our right to bear arms for precisely this sort of situation.

          Now, against the military, a 9mm is somewhat useless. But they swore an oath to the Constitution, and so far as I’m aware, the armed forces as a whole commit fealty to that, not a pathetic guy who can somehow bankrupt casinos.