Kristi Noem refuses to answer when questioned by reporter about whether ICE disarmed Alex Pretti before fatally shooting him
After a reporter questioned Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Saturday about the weapon with which the Trump administration claimed Alex Pretti “reached out” to ICE agents to harm them, Noem gave a direct answer.
While DHS has argued that Pretti was an armed man who caused violence, Videos of the incident and affidavits contradict DHS statements. that the shots by Border Patrol agents were fired “in a defensive manner.”
In clips that have been circulating online, none of the images appear to show Pretti with a gun, just a phone in his hand. Pretti, who had a license to carry a concealed weapon, was shot several times by ICE agents on Saturday after they discovered he was carrying a 9mm semi-automatic handgun, according to The News.
“Was the 37-year-old man, who had a weapons license, brandished a weapon?” the journalist asked Noem during a news conference Saturday. “And at what point did the authorities recover the weapon? And also the chargers?”
Avoiding a direct response, Noem responded: “This individual appeared to impede a police operation and assaulted our officers. They responded in accordance with their training and took action to defend the life of the officer and the public around him.”
Telling the reporter that he doesn’t know of “any peaceful protester who shows up with a gun and ammunition instead of a sign,” he added: “This is a violent riot when someone shows up with guns and uses them to attack law enforcement officers.”
The journalist did not back down and pressed Noem for further clarification.
“The video appears to show that he is unarmed before shots are fired, so I just want clarity on that,” he told Noem before also asking why federal agents told the Minneapolis Police Department to leave the scene after the incident.
Noem responded: “We continue to follow the exact same protocols we have always had and that is why this investigation is ongoing. We are “We will continue to gather the facts as they develop and we will do so just as we did throughout the Trump administration and previous administrations.”
Stating that “nothing has changed” within the agency, Noem then told the reporter that “it should not be distracted from the facts of this situation” and that DHS “will continue to release details as we have them.”
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“Our law enforcement officers were there conducting a targeted operation against an individual who was in this country illegally and had a criminal conviction for domestic assault with intent to cause bodily harm and other convictions as well,” Noem continued.
She added: “This individual went and impeded their law enforcement operations, attacked those officers, had a gun and several dozen rounds of ammunition, wanting to inflict harm on these officers who were coming, thus brandishing and impeding the work that they were doing.”
Noem’s comments came after Customs and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino accused Pretti of wanting to cause “maximum damage and massacre to law enforcement,” and claimed that agents had followed their training in the incident.
Meanwhile, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey denounced on Saturday that in the video of the incident he saw he saw “more than six masked officers beating one of our constituents, shooting him.” [Pretti] until death.”
“How many more residents, how many more Americans must die or be seriously injured for this operation to end? How many more lives must be lost before this administration realizes that a political, partisan narrative is not as important as American values?” Frey added.