Fox News’s Peter Doocy Confronts Kristi Noem: ‘Is It the Protocol To Use Deadly Force’ if Alex Pretti ‘Was Disarmed?’

Fox News’s Peter Doocy interviewed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem Sunday from FEMA’s National Response Coordination Center in the midst of the massive winter storm blanketing the country, and the shooting death of protester Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

After Pretti was shot and killed by Border Patrol officers Saturday, Noem claimed without evidence on The Sunday Briefing that Pretti intended to “kill law enforcement” officers and that agents “fired defensive shots” to protect themselves.

Widely-circulated video showed no evidence of Pretti “brandishing” a weapon as Noem claimed, before he was shot multiple times.

“So, you said last night, ‘It looks like a situation where an individual arrived on the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement,'” Doocy said. “Did he say, ‘I’m gonna kill you,’ or did he leave a note? How do you know that was his intent?”

“Part of this investigation will be hearing from those agents and officers and people on the ground,” Noem answered. “But we do know that he came to that scene and impeded a law enforcement operation which is against federal law. It’s a felony. When he did that interacting with those agents when they tried to get him to disengage can, he became aggressive and resisted them throughout that process. These officers used their training, followed their protocols and were in fear of their lives and the people around them.”

Doocy pushed back on Noem’s use of the word “protocol.”

“You mentioned the protocol — there is an angle of video that we’ve been playing all morning where it shows an officer removing a weapon either from Alex Pretti’s waistband or a holster, and he walks away with the weapon before officers start shooting. It appears that Alex Pretti was disarmed. If he was disarmed, is it the protocol to use deadly force?” he asked.

“And that’s all part of this investigation,” Noem said without addressing DHS protocol on shooting a disarmed person.

“Every video will be analyzed. Everything will be looked at. And that’s part of the answer is that I can’t speak to every single thing that those officers thought,” Noem added. But this happened in seconds. They clearly feared for their lives and took action to defend themselves and the people around them.”

Watch the clip above via The Sunday Briefing on Fox News.

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