&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Trump brands dead ICE protester Alex Pretti an ‘agitator’ and ‘insurrectionist’ over viral video")
US President Donald Trump on Friday (Jan 30) labelled Alex Pretti, the protestor shot dead by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents last week, an "agitator and perhaps insurrectionist." This comes as an alleged video of Pretti getting into a scuffle with federal agents went viral. The video, as per reports, dates back to just 11 days before the deadly shooting that claimed his life.
What did Trump say about Pretti?
In a post on his Truth Social account, the POTUS labelled 37-year-old Alex Pretti an "agitator" and "insurrectionist" and said that his "stock has gone way down with the just released video of him screaming and spitting in the face of a very calm and under control ICE Officer and then crazily kicking in a new and very expensive government vehicle, so hard and violent, in fact, that the taillight broke off in pieces."
Also read | Alex Pretti's killers placed on administrative leave as Trump seeks to calm Minnesota backlash
Calling Pretti's actions in the January 13 altercation video "quite a display of abuse and anger, for all to see, crazed and out of control," Trump added that the ICE officer remained "calm and cool". "Not an easy thing to be under those circumstances," he added.
What did the Pretti video show?
The video that surfaced on Wednesday (Jan 28) shows Alex Pretti hurling an expletive at federal officers and grappling with them. In the video, he can be seen forcefully dragged to the ground by federal immigration agents after kicking out the taillight of their vehicle amid a Minneapolis protest 11 days before he was shot dead by Border Patrol officers.
In the video, Pretti can be seen with a handgun tucked in his waistband. However, the footage does not show Pretti attempting to reach for the weapon, and it remains unclear whether the federal agents noticed the gun.
You can see the video here:
Pretti, an intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Centre was shot and killed by federal agents on Saturday (Jan 24). The two federal agents who fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis have been placed on administrative leave, the Department of Homeland Security said on Wednesday (Jan 28). DHS stressed that the move is standard procedure in cases involving fatal shootings by federal officers.
