Loading...
About this Episode
Hosts & Guests
Transcript
This morning on a street in Minneapolis, at least seven federal agents tackled and then
shot and killed, Alex Jeffrey Pretty, a 37-year-old ICU nurse for the local VA hospital.
Also from the scene shows Pretty directing traffic on a street out of an area with agents
around, then trying to help another person get up after she had been pushed to the ground
by the agents.
The agents then surround Pretty and shoot pepper spray into his face, then pull him to the
ground from behind and hit him as he appears to be trying to keep his head off the ground.
An agent appears to take a gun out of Pretty's waistband during the struggle, then turns and
leaves with it.
A shot then stops Pretty's movements, appearing to kill him, before nine more shots ring
out, apparently as agents continue to fire into his body.
It looked like an execution.
After he was dead, the agents walked away, apparently making no effort to preserve the
crime scene, which people on the street later tried to secure by walling it off with trash
bins.
As journalists fill up bump-noted, administration officials didn't even pretend to wait
for more information, before jumping straight to the opponent of the state deserved it.
Mitch Smith of the New York Times reported that federal agents have blocked state investigators
from the scene.
Through Evans of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, a statewide investigations team
that specializes in police shootings, told reporters his agency had obtained a search warrant,
a rare step, but the federal government still refused them access.
Tonight, in a lawsuit against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Nome and other administration
officials, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison asked a judge for a temporary restraining
order to prevent DHS agents from destroying evidence related to the shooting.
The suit noted the astonishing departure from normal investigations, seemingly trying
not to preserve evidence, but to destroy it.
A judge who was appointed to the bench by Trump immediately granted the restraining order,
barring the administration from destroying or altering evidence concerning the killing.
Ernesto Londonio of the New York Times reported that federal officials also have refused to
disclose the identities of federal agents involved in Saturday's shooting, as well as the
names of federal agents who have shot people in recent days.
Minnesota police have refused to obey the federal officers, though.
Local law enforcement has been talking to witnesses and finding videos of the shooting.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said in a press conference, our demand today is
for those federal agencies that are operating in our city to do so with the same discipline,
humanity, and integrity that effective law enforcement in this country demands.
We urge everyone to remain peaceful.
The Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, has said that it, rather than the FBI, will
investigate the shooting.
But as Alec Witt of MSNOW noted, DHS had already issued a statement about the shooting, which
falsely asserted that Freddie had approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a nine-millimeter
semi-automatic handgun, and that he violently resisted as officers attempted to disarm him.
The statement continued that an agent fired defensive shots, and added that Freddie
also had two magazines and no ID.
This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law
enforcement.
So, Witt noted, they're going to be investigating that which they've already issued a summary
about?
It would seem that it's a closed book.
After repeatedly being exposed as liars over previous accusations against those they
have shot, the Department of Homeland Security has so little credibility that Witt
is not the only journalist calling out the federal agents for lying.
Devon Lomb of the New York Times wrote,
Videos on social media that were verified by the New York Times contradict the Department
of Homeland Security's account of the fatal shooting of a man by federal agents in Minneapolis
on Saturday morning.
The Department of Homeland Security said the episode began after a man approached Border
Patrol agents with a handgun and they tried to disarm him.
But footage from the scene shows the man was holding a phone in his hand, not a gun, when
federal agents took him to the ground and shot him.
But lying to the American people is the only option for the administration, when we can,
once again, all see what happened with our own eyes.
He did have a permit for a concealed handgun and appeared to have carried the gun with
him, although witnesses say he never reached for it.
Tonight, Nome doubled down on the lie saying again,
This looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage
on individuals and to kill law enforcement.
When the Democratic Party's social media account posted,
ICE agents shot and killed another person in Minneapolis this morning.
Get ICE out of Minnesota now.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller replied,
A would-be assassin tried to murder federal law enforcement and the official Democrat
account sides with the terrorists.
The Democrat social media account responded,
You're a f***ing liar with blood on your hands.
Miller continued to bang that drum when Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat of Connecticut, said
that ICE must leave Minneapolis and that Congress should not fund this version of ICE.
This is seeking confirmation, chaos, and dystopia.
Miller responded,
An assassin tried to murder federal agents and this is your response.
The Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar similarly decried the killing, Miller responded,
A domestic terrorist tried to assassinate federal law enforcement and this is your response.
You and the state's entire Democrat leadership team have been flaming the flames of insurrection
for the singular purpose of stopping the deportation of illegals who invaded the country.
Miller is a white nationalist who has recommended others read a dystopian novel in which people
of color invade Europe and destroy Western civilization.
Those who support immigration are in the books telling enemies who are abetting an invasion.
A word Miller relies on that is destroying the culture of white countries.
They are working for the enemy.
In the wake of pretty shooting, Attorney General Pam Bondy wrote to Minnesota Governor
Tim Walls to suggest he could bring back law and order to Minnesota if he handed over
the state's voter roles to the Department of Justice.
As Jacob Nutsson of Democracy Docket noted, she explicitly tied the administration's violence
in the state to its determination to get its hands on voters personal data before the 2026 election.
Minnesota has voted for the Democratic candidate running against Trump in the past three presidential elections,
but he insists that he really has won the state each time.
As G. Eliot Morris of Strength and Numbers wrote, Republicans could stop this at any time they wanted to.
All that would take to end the murder of American citizens by an untrained government goonsquad
is 16 Republicans in Congress voting with Democrats to defund ICE or 23 to impeach and remove Trump.
Three in house and 20 in Senate.
That's it.
23 Americans can vote for the public and end all of this.
Morris also pointed out that in December Trump's approval rating was negative in 40 states,
including 10 he won in 2025.
That covers 30 seats currently held by Republicans.
Pretty shooting will likely erode Trump's support further.
Tonight, even right wing podcaster Tim Poole reacted to pretty shooting by noting that it looked as if the agent had disarmed
pretty before the other agents shot him.
I don't see Trump winning this one.
Poole commented.
The funding bill for DHS is effectively dead in the Senate.
As Democrats have said, they will not support any more funding for DHS.
Tonight Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat of New York, told reporters Senate Democrats will not provide the votes
to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included.
But the July law, the Republicans call the one big beautiful bill act,
poured nearly $191 billion into DHS through September 30th, 2029,
with almost $75 billion going to ICE and $67 billion going to Customs and Border Protection.
FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, got just $2.9 billion.
Representative Seth Molton, a Democrat of Massachusetts, had more to say.
What we just saw this morning on the streets of Minneapolis is another outright murder by federal officials.
And let me just be clear, those federal ICE officers are absolute cowards.
I am a Marine veteran standing here telling you to your face that they are unprofessional, pathetic cowards.
Because if a Marine, an 18-year-old Marine, did that in Iraq in the middle of a war zone,
he would be court-martialed because it is murder.
And you pathetic little cowards who have to wear face masks because you're so damn scared,
couldn't even effectively wrestle a guy to the ground, so you needed to shoot him?
This is why ICE needs to be prosecuted.
Yeah, I voted to defund it, but ICE you need to be prosecuted.
And director Todd Lyons, who's running ICE right now,
I hope you're hearing this from this Marine to you.
You guys are criminal thugs.
You need to be held accountable to law if you think you can enforce it.
And you need to be prosecuted right now.
Just hours after the killing of Alex Prety, agents pinned US citizen Matthew James Allen to the street.
While he screamed, I have done nothing at all.
My name is Matthew James Allen.
I'm a United States citizen.
You're going to kill me.
Is that what you want?
You want to kill me?
You want to kill me on the street?
You're going to have to kill me.
I have done nothing wrong.
Nearby, his sobbing wife screamed, stop, please, stop, please.
We were just running away from the gas.
That's all we were doing.
We all know the poem.
Blue Missouri Executive Director Jess Piper wrote.
And there is no shade of white that will save you from this murderous regime.
Tonight, Susan and Michael Prety, the parents of Alex Jeffrey Prety, issued a statement.
We are heartbroken, but also very angry, they said.
Alex was a kind hearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends,
and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital.
Alex wanted to make a difference in this world.
Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact.
I do not throw around the hero term lightly.
However, his last thought and act was to protect a woman.
The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting.
Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump's murdering and cowardly ice thugs.
He had his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head
while trying to protect the woman ice just pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed.
Please get the truth out about our son.
He was a good man.
Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson.
It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead and Massachusets, recorded with music
composed by Michael Moss.
