President Donald Trump’s administration and his (Make America Great Again) MAGA coalition continued to spread misinformation about the shooting death of Alex Pretty in Minneapolis.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claimed on Sunday that Preti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, “approached U.S. Border Patrol agents with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun,” and that agents “attempted to disarm the suspect, but the armed suspect violently resisted.”
Recommended stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
Video footage taken by bystanders shows Preti filming a group of U.S. Border Patrol agents on Saturday and then intervening to protect a woman who was pushed to the ground by one of the agents.
Footage shared by US-based Drop Sight News shows Preeti trying to help the woman before at least five agents knock her to the ground and shoot her multiple times after a scuffle on an icy road.
Analysis of the footage by US media and the Netherlands-based investigative reporting group Bellingcat found that Preti’s gun had already been seized by investigators before she was shot.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara later told reporters that Preti was a “legal gun owner” with a permit and had only a few traffic tickets on his criminal record.
Despite the video evidence, Grand Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino told a news conference that Preti’s gun showed he was “intending to cause maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”
Stephen Miller, the chief of staff for policy and homeland security, claimed without evidence that Preti was an “assassin” who attempted to “murder a federal officer,” while DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said Preti “violently” resisted arrest.
A popular right-wing influencer amplified the Trump administration’s claims against X.
The MAGA-affiliated account Libs of TikTok labeled Preeti a “madman” and an “assassin.”
Right-wing influencer Alexander Muse told his 681,000 followers that he was “expecting a shootout in the distance” with federal agents, even though there was no evidence Preti pulled out a gun or brandished it.
Some right-wing influencers have gone beyond echoing the Trump administration’s rhetoric, piling on blatant misinformation on top of baseless accusations of officials.
Trump ally Nick Souter, who has 1.4 million followers on X, falsely claimed that Preti, a U.S. citizen, was an “illegal alien” who was “armed with a gun and tried to pull over the agents who were arresting him.”
Conservative podcaster Jesse Kelly denigrated Preti as a “soldier of the communist revolution” who was “killed in a war” in an X post with a photo of Preti on a hike.
MAGA-related accounts also shared digitally altered images purporting to be photos of Pretty in women’s clothing.
Preeti’s parents said in a statement that their son was a “kind-hearted person” and the government’s “offensive lies” against him were “reprehensible and disgusting.”
The claims that Preti is a “domestic terrorist” and the scrutiny of his political beliefs echo similar accusations leveled at Renee Goode, a 37-year-old woman who was also shot and killed by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis earlier this month.
Trump administration officials have also described Good as a “terrorist” and claimed she had tried to run over an immigration officer with her car, although video evidence casts doubt on that claim.
Officials also spread misleading information that appeared to be aimed at discrediting protests against President Trump’s anti-immigrant crackdown more generally.
Last week, the White House released an image of arrested activist Nekima Levy Armstrong that had been altered using artificial intelligence to appear emotionally distressed.
Some Republicans, including Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie, have pushed back at the reports surrounding Preti’s death, saying on the X show that “possessing a firearm is not a death penalty, but a God-given right protected by the Constitution.”
The National Rifle Association, a pro-gun lobby, also rejected a proposal by a federal prosecutor appointed by President Trump that anyone approaching a law enforcement officer with a gun could be shot.
Law enforcement officials in Minnesota also dispute statements made by Trump administration officials, including claims by Vice President J.D. Vance that local authorities refused to cooperate with federal authorities in investigating Preti’s murder.
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Bureau of Criminal Enforcement said Sunday that state officials were being obstructed, saying in a statement on X that state officials were denied access to crime scenes by DHS.
