By Holmes Lybrand, Lauren Fox, Shimon Prokupecz, CNN
Two officers fired their guns during the fatal encounter with Alex Pretti in Minneapolis over the weekend, according to an initial report to Congress from the Department of Homeland Security reviewed by CNN.
The report – from Customs and Border Protection’s initial investigation into the shooting of Pretti – says an officer yelled, “He’s got a gun” multiple times before two officers fired as agents struggled with him on the ground.
“CBP personnel attempted to take Pretti into custody. Pretti resisted CBP personnel’s efforts and a struggle ensued,” the report says. “During the struggle, a (Border Patrol agent) yelled, ‘He’s got a gun!’ multiple times.”
The report continues: “Approximately five seconds later, a (Border Patrol agent) discharged his CBP-issued Glock 19 and a (Customs and Border Protection officer) also discharged his CBP-issued Glock 47 at Pretti.”
The report does not specifically say whether the bullets fired from both law enforcement officials hit Pretti.
Questions over whether officers fired Pretti’s firearm during the struggle have swirled around the deadly shooting, which bystanders filmed from multiple angles as the scrum and subsequent killing unfolded.
According to the report, however, officers fired their own, agency-issued firearms. A CNN analysis of available footage of the encounter found that an officer appeared to remove Pretti’s firearm from his waist moments before the shooting.
The report, from CBP’s internal investigation led by the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility – which investigates potential criminal conduct by CBP officers — is the first to come out of the multiple ongoing probes into the shooting, including by DHS’ Homeland Security Investigative agency and Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
The report adds that “after the shooting, a (Border Patrol agent) advised he had possession of Pretti’s firearm. The BPA subsequently cleared and secured Pretti’s firearm in his vehicle.”
CBP personnel “cut Pretti’s clothing and provided medical aid to him by placing chest seals on his wounds,” the report states.
Prior to the shooting, according to the report, a Border Patrol officer “was confronted by two female civilians blowing whistles.”
The officer “ordered the female civilians to move out of the roadway, and the female civilians did not move. The (officer) pushed them both away and one of the females ran to a male, later identified as 37-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a US citizen.”
Officers attempted to take Pretti into custody and “Pretti resisted CBP personnel’s efforts and a struggle ensued,” the report of the initial findings states.
Over 10 minutes after Pretti was shot and killed, Minneapolis Fire Department Emergency Medical Services transported him to the Hennepin County Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at approximately 9:32 a.m.
CBP investigators were “advised that an autopsy would be conducted by medical personnel from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office” and will make a request for official findings when the autopsy is complete, the report concludes.
This story has been updated with additional details.
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