By Curt Devine, Thomas Bordeaux, Isabelle Chapman, Casey Tolan, Yahya Abou-Ghazala, CNN
(CNN) — Shortly before his fatal encounter with federal immigration agents on Saturday, Alex Pretti was confronted on a Minneapolis street by an officer who was later on the scene of his shooting, video analyzed by CNN shows.
That video, combined with court declarations filed by eyewitnesses, sheds new light on the moments that led up to the deadly incident.
Those moments are facing heightened scrutiny amid escalating rhetoric by Trump administration officials who sought to cast Pretti as a violent agitator involved in a “riot” as federal agents carried out an immigration operation.
“The suspect did bring a weapon, a loaded nine-millimeter high-capacity handgun, to a riot,” Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino told CNN on Sunday. He claimed that Pretti “was in the scene actively impeding and assaulting law enforcement,” and that Border Patrol agents were “the victims” in the shooting.
Much remains unknown about the moments before Pretti’s death, including when he arrived at the scene and what he did before the incidents recorded on camera.
But video analyzed by CNN so far does not capture any violent actions by protesters, who blow whistles and yell at federal agents – nor does it show Pretti acting violently or holding the handgun that a federal officer removed from his waistband seconds before he was killed.
“I see nothing that Mr. Pretti did that was unlawful,” said Rob Doar, the president of Minnesota Gun Owners Law Center. “The narrative that’s been coming out (of the administration) afterwards, I think is going to have a chilling effect … it’s going to confuse people about the rights that they actually have.”
One of the earliest accounts of the start of the protest comes from an unnamed witness who filed a declaration in federal court in support of an ongoing case against the Department of Homeland Security over its immigration crackdown.
That witness, a children’s face-painter who lives in Minneapolis’ Whittier neighborhood where the shooting took place, described getting ready for work when first hearing protesters’ whistles at about 8:50 a.m., records show.
In the filing, the witness recounted driving to the corner of Nicollet Avenue and West 26th Street, toward the sounds, and saw several federal agents and about 15 protesters gathered – including Pretti, whom the witness said was “acting to help traffic move more smoothly.” ICE agents were “surrounding cars and punching car windows,” the witness wrote.
In a statement on X, DHS said that agents in the area “were conducting a targeted operation in Minneapolis against an illegal alien wanted for violent assault.”
Nilson Barahona, another witness, told CNN that he was at Glam Doll Donuts on the same street when someone fleeing federal agents ran into the restaurant. The donut shop staff quickly locked the doors, and when agents couldn’t get inside, they turned their attention to “those who were outside, who had come to help,” Barahona said. Outside the restaurant, Barahona said observers began making noise and blowing their whistles.
Another video shot from a passing car and analyzed by CNN shows two federal officers walking across the street and confronting Pretti in nearly the same spot where he was later shot dead.
One officer, wearing a dark-colored jacket and light-brown beanie, is seen placing a hand on Pretti’s torso and pushing him backwards out of the street as Pretti records with his phone. Pretti appears to be talking animatedly to the agent pushing him, but his words are inaudible.
It’s not clear at exactly what point the vid