On a cold Minneapolis night, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stepped to a microphone and told the country she believed a man shot dead by federal agents had come to “kill law enforcement.”
The man was identified as 37-year-old Alex Pretti, killed during a federal immigration operation involving ICE and Border Patrol agents. Noem said agents were trying to apprehend what she called a violent illegal immigrant when Pretti “interfered with the operation” while armed.
Speaking at an evening press conference, Noem said Border Patrol agents were confronted by an armed man carrying a handgun.
BREAKING: Kristi Noem claims that Alex Pretti approached ICE with a gun.
What she doesn’t say is that he had a right to carry that gun and a license to carry that gun.
What she also doesn’t say is that he never pulled that gun out on officers.
And of course, what she doesn’t… pic.twitter.com/OJufMIxwx0
— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) January 24, 2026
“An individual approached officers with a 9-millimetre semi-automatic handgun,” Noem said. “The officers attempted to disarm this individual, but the armed suspect reacted violently. Fearing for his life and for the lives of his fellow officers around him, an agent fired defensive shots.”
Noem said Pretti had two magazines of ammunition and no identification when agents encountered him. “It looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and kill law enforcement,” she added. Her description tracked earlier remarks from Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino, who said Pretti meant to cause “maximum damage” and “massacre” immigration agents.
Then came the videos—grainy, unsteady, and shared fast. In footage taken from multiple angles, critics say Pretti appears empty-handed in the seconds before he is shot, with no weapon visible in his hands. That gap between what officials described and what the public thinks it sees is now at the centre of the backlash, and it’s why this case is moving far beyond a single street corner in Minneapolis.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper posted the video and challenged Noem’s description with a short question: “Is that what you see?” The post spread quickly, turning the shooting into a Rorschach test—one side hearing “self-defense,” the other watching the same moment and asking why deadly force was used.
“This looks like a situation where an individual arrived to inflict maximum damage and kill law enforcement.”
– Kristi Noem pic.twitter.com/KO0q3To3Tw
— Barney Panofsky’s Best Intentions (@mynamesnotgordy) January 24, 2026
Noem did not limit her criticism to the man who was killed. She blamed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for what she called rhetoric that encourages violence against federal immigration agents and puts both officers and protesters at risk.
“The Minnesota governor and the Minneapolis mayor need to take a long hard look in the mirror,” Noem said. “They need to evaluate their rhetoric and conversations and encouragement of such violence against our citizens and law enforcement officers.”
She pointed to recent remarks by Walz, including his statement Saturday that Border Patrol officers were “not law enforcement,” and a comment last year in which he referred to ICE as “Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo.”
Noem also used the moment to attack Minnesota’s broader stance toward federal immigration enforcement. She accused state officials of refusing to cooperate with federal authorities and of protecting violent criminals from prosecution, saying Minnesota leaders have “refused to turn over murderers… and have protected illegal criminals from being brought to justice.”
She contrasted Minnesota with Texas and Florida, which she said work more closely with federal immigration agencies.
Wow. Greg Bovino and Kristi Noem literally saying the exact same thing. pic.twitter.com/ETDfrqrfCY
— Blue Georgia (@BlueATLGeorgia) January 24, 2026
Her sharpest words were aimed squarely at the state’s top leadership and Minneapolis’ mayor. “In Minneapolis, Governor Walz and Mayor Frey they instead choose violence. They instead choose to encourage the destruction of their city and crime against their people. It appears they want this lawlessness to continue. It appears they want chaos to distract from threat and fraud and corruption of their city.”
For now, authorities say the shooting remains under investigation. The key questions are painfully basic, and they’re the kind that don’t go away just because a press conference ends: What did agents believe in the moment, what does the video actually show, and how will investigators reconcile those two things?
In a country where nearly every major police encounter seems to come with footage and instant commentary, the distance between an official timeline and a citizen’s camera can shape trust in law enforcement—and deepen the political trench warfare already surrounding immigration enforcement.
