ProPublica Identifies Fed Agents Who Shot Alex Pretti: ‘Few Investigations That Deserve More Sunlight’

Adam Gray/AP photo

The two federal agents who shot Alex Pretti were Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez, according to government records reviewed by ProPublica reporter J. David McSwane.

Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse who worked for the VA, was fatally shot on Jan. 24. Shortly afterwards, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem called Pretti a “domestic terrorist;” other Trump administration officials also made comments accusing him of “brandishing” his weapon and intending to “kill” or “massacre” federal agents, among other unfounded claims.

Video evidence taken by several bystanders, reviewed in frame-by-frame detail by multiple media outlets, contradicted these claims. During the incident, Pretti was only holding his cell phone, he had a permit to carry his gun, and he never took the gun out. An agent found the gun in its holster while Pretti was being held down by multiple agents, and removed the gun before another agent began firing at Pretti’s back.

Pretti’s shooting, coming just days after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good, sparked nationwide protests and growing calls for the agents who shot him to be criminally investigated.

“The victims are the Border Patrol agents,” Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino told CNN’s Dana Bash the day after the shooting.  “I’m not blaming the Border Patrol agents. The suspect put himself in that situation.” Shortly thereafter, Bovino was reassigned from Minneapolis, ousted from his position, and sent back to California, “where he is expected to retire soon,” according to a report by The Atlantic.

McSwane’s report, published on ProPublica’s website Sunday afternoon, noted that CBP, “which employs both men, has so far refused to release their names and has disclosed few other facts about the deadly incident.”

According to the records reviewed by ProPublica, Ochoa, 43, joined CBP in 2018; Gutierrez, 35, joined in 2014 and is currently assigned to a “special response team, which conducts high-risk operations like those of police SWAT units,” under CBP’s Office of Field Operations, wrote McSwane, adding:

Ochoa, who goes by Jesse, graduated from the University of Texas-Pan American with a degree in criminal justice, according to his ex-wife, Angelica Ochoa. A longtime resident of the Rio Grande Valley, Ochoa had for years dreamed of working for the Border Patrol and finally landed a job there, she said. By the time the couple split in 2021, he had become a gun enthusiast with about 25 rifles, pistols and shotguns, Angelica Ochoa said.

Both Ochoa and Gutierrez are originally from South Texas and were assigned to Operation Metro Surge, President Donald Trump’s immigration surge in the Minneapolis area.

The frequent use of face masks by these federal immigration agents, “an almost unheard of practice in law enforcement,” and the CPB’s stubborn refusal to disclose information has meant that “the public has been kept from one of the chief ways it has to hold officers involved in such altercations accountable: their identity,” wrote McSwane, and Minnesota authorities have complained that the feds are blocking their access to investigate the shooting.

ProPublica’s editors released a statement defending the release of Ochoa and Guiterrez’s names, adding it to the end of the article and sharing it on social media.

The statement said:

ProPublica is publishing the names of the two federal immigration agents involved in the fatal shooting of Minnesota protester Alex Pretti. We believe there are few investigations that deserve more sunlight and public scrutiny than this one, in which two masked agents fired 10 shots at Pretti as he lay on the ground after being pepper-sprayed.

The Department of Justice said it is investigating the incident, but the names of the two agents have been withheld from Congress and from state and local law enforcement.

The policy of shielding officers’ identities, particularly after a public shooting, is a stark departure from standard law enforcement protocols, according to lawmakers, state attorneys general and former federal officials. Such secrecy, in our view, deprives the public of the most fundamental tool for accountability.

Read the report at ProPublica.

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