Federal agents on Saturday morning shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, while scuffling with him on an icy roadway in the Midwestern city, less than three weeks after an immigration officer fired on Renee Good, also 37, killing her in her car.
The Trump administration quickly claimed that Pretti had intended to harm the federal agents — as it did after Good’s death — pointing to a pistol it said was discovered on him.
However, video shared widely on social media and verified by US media showed Pretti never drawing a weapon, with agents firing around 10 shots at him seconds after he was sprayed in the face with chemical irritant and thrown to the ground.
After top officials described Pretti as an “assassin” who had assaulted the agents, Pretti’s parents issued a statement on Saturday condemning the Trump administration’s “sickening lies” about their son.
Asked Sunday what she would say to Pretti’s parents, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said: “Just that I’m grieved for them.”
“I truly am. I can’t even imagine losing a child,” she told Fox News’s “The Sunday Briefing.”
While continuing to defend the agents’ actions, her tone was markedly different from a day earlier, when she repeatedly told a briefing that Pretti had attacked law enforcement and “was there to perpetuate violence.”
She said Sunday that more clarity would come as an investigation into the incident continues.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, speaking to NBC’s “Meet the Press,” also said an investigation was necessary to get a full understanding of the killing.