The Department of Justice (DOJ) opened a civil rights investigation into the death of Minnesota nurse Alex Pretti after he was killed by federal immigration agents.
The inquiry will focus on the moments leading to the shooting and what legal authority agents relied on.
The case is being cast as a fight inside the federal government, with Attorney General Pam Bondi’s DOJ and its civil rights lawyers scrutinizing actions taken by agents who operate under DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
Pretti, 37, was shot dead by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis on Jan. 17 after he filmed deportation operations, and the incident was captured in part by bystanders, according to the report’s account.
Federal authorities said Pretti worked as an intensive care unit nurse for the Department of Veterans Affairs and was carrying a handgun when agents confronted him on the street.
Officials emphasized that he had a concealed carry permit, but they also said he carried multiple magazines of ammunition, a detail agents cited when describing the encounter as “high risk” and volatile.
Border Patrol officers claimed Pretti “resisted arrest,” and they said the contact escalated into a physical struggle involving “a half dozen agents” trying to control his movements and secure the scene.
The report says Pretti was pepper-sprayed during the incident, and agents can be heard discussing that the nurse was “armed” while they attempted to detain him.
Even with that, the narrative has turned on timing, because one agent allegedly disarmed Pretti shortly before shots were fired, and video has become the main public record of what happened next.
Pretti was shot “around 10 times,” the report states, after officers said he continued resisting, and they insisted lethal force was justified in the moment and necessary for officer safety.
Bystander video is now central, and critics argue it conflicts with the government’s early storyline, since the footage reportedly does not show a weapon being pointed at agents at any time. Agents had warned each other about “multiple magazines,” but the footage is being reviewed frame by frame.
Noem said Pretti “brandished his weapon” toward law enforcement, a claim DHS used to defend the agents and to argue the shooting was a response to a deadly danger, per the Daily Mail.
However, the same bystander video described in the report does not show any clear brandishing, and a preliminary internal DHS review found Pretti “did not flash his firearm.”
DOJ will compare those findings with witness accounts from the sidewalk.
That contradiction is what pushed DOJ to step in, with a civil rights probe that will examine whether excessive force or unlawful detention violated federal protections and federal use of force standards.
Bondi’s DOJ is expected to review body camera footage, dispatch audio, witness statements, and the sequence of commands given, including what agents believed when they said “armed” and when they fired.
The investigation adds pressure on President Donald Trump’s administration to clarify rules of engagement for immigration operations, and it raises new questions about accountability when claims and video diverge.
