CBS News Analysis Finds Pretti Shooting Video Contradicts Trump Officials’ Claims

A mattress is spray painted with “R.I.P. Alex” near the site of the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis, on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Jack Brook)

A CBS News analysis of footage of the Alex Pretti shooting concluded that there’s a “sharp contrast between what Trump officials say and what video shows.”

“Those officials — including a Cabinet secretary, a top White House official and top law enforcement officials — have alleged, without providing evidence, that 37-year-old Alex Pretti wanted to murder agents. They claimed that he attacked agents, despite video evidence to the contrary. They questioned his legal right to carry a concealed weapon. And they asserted that Pretti received immediate care for his wounds, though a witness said otherwise,” noted CBS before diving into the video.

The first false claim tackled by the analysis is the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) assertion that Pretti “approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun” and “violently resisted” when the officers attempted to disarm him. The video shows him holding a cell phone, an agent taking a gun secured by Pretti’s waist, and a shot at Pretti being fired shortly thereafter.

The next, courtesy of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, is that Pretti “attacked” the officers. CBS found that “Pretti was directing traffic and not interacting with federal officers until a woman nearby was knocked down by an officer.” After Pretti helped her up, an officer is seen spraying “him in the face with a chemical irritant” while “other officers surrounded him and dragged him to the ground.”

Other disputed claims about the incident taken up by CBS include a DHS statement about Pretti receiving immediate medical aid, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller’s characterization of the deceased as a “would-be assassin,” Miller and Noem’s dismissal of him as a “domestic terrorist,” and Patel’s assertion that “you cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want.”

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