Trump Calls the Man Killed by Federal Agents an ‘Agitator’ and ‘Perhaps, Insurrectionist’

President Donald Trump has labeled Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old Veterans Affairs nurse who was killed by federal agents in Minneapolis on Jan. 24, an “agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist,” in a post early Friday.
“Alex Pretti’s standing has dropped significantly with the just-released video showing him screaming and spitting in the face of a very calm and composed ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] Officer, and then wildly kicking a new and very expensive government vehicle, so forcefully and violently that the taillight broke into pieces,” Trump continued in his post. “It was quite a display of abuse and anger, visible to all, crazed and out of control. The ICE Officer was calm and collected, not an easy thing to be under those circumstances!”
The President seemed to be referring to a video published by digital news outlet the News Movement and analyzed by BBC News. In the video, a man who appears to be Pretti is seen on Jan. 13 shouting at federal immigration agents and then spitting at and kicking the taillight of their vehicle as they drove away. After that, the agents in tactical gear got out of their vehicle, tackled the man to the ground, and sprayed chemical irritants at surrounding onlookers. Moments later, the agents released the man and retreated.
The Minnesota Star Tribune released another video on Thursday showing a different angle of the same incident, and Pretti’s family confirmed to the newspaper that the man was Pretti. CNN reported on Tuesday that Pretti was involved in an altercation with federal agents in which he had broken a rib over a week before he was shot; the Department of Homeland Security told the outlet that it had “no record of this incident.”
Trump’s remarks about Pretti came after his Administration initially, after Pretti’s killing, portrayed Pretti as a security threat and domestic terrorist, including alleging that he had intended to “.” Pretti but showed that he was not holding it at the time he was restrained and fatally shot by federal agents.
Pretti’s family called the allegations “” and described Pretti as a “kindhearted soul,” “good man,” and “hero.”
As, including growing frustration from even, Trump promised that his Administration was “” to handle the incident.
Regarding the video of Pretti’s earlier encounter with federal agents, a lawyer representing Pretti’s family told the in a statement: “A week before Alex was gunned down in the street—even though he posed no threat to anyone—he was violently attacked by a group of ICE agents,” and “Nothing that happened a full week before could possibly have justified Alex’s killing by ICE on Jan 24.”
It should be noted that there are some parts in the original text that seem incomplete or unclear (such as “Trump’s remarks about Pretti come after his Administration initially after Pretti’s killing portrayed Pretti as a security threat and domestic terrorist, including alleging that he had intended to ‘.’ Pretti but showed that he was not holding it at the time he was restrained and fatally shot by federal agents.”), and the rephrased text tries to maintain the integrity as much as possible based on the existing content.