A wreath surrounds an image of Alex Pretti at the makeshift memorial near the site where Pretti was fatally shot by federal agents, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., January 26, 2026. REUTERS/Tim Evans
A new video showing the shooting of Alex Jeffrey Pretti is making things "worse" for the White House, a CNN reporter said on Tuesday.
The new angle of the shooting shows a group of agents beating Alex Jeffrey Pretti — this time filmed by a person who walked across the street to a maroon car parked in front of the incident.
"This video just gets worse and worse and worse for the White House and what they've been claiming," said CNN's Tom Forman.
Thus far, President Donald Trump's administration has stayed on message that Pretti approached the agents brandishing a weapon. White House deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller referred to him as a "domestic terrorist" who was clearly intent on killing federal agents. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused Pretti of perpetrating “the definition of domestic terrorism."
Multiple videos from several angles of the incident continue to disprove the allegations, including the new one.
"Let's start with the general setup here," Forman began. "It's about seven minutes — seven minutes of video before all of this happens, and it puts everything in context. Let's start first with the general street scene here and let this play out. What had happened, according to witnesses, is that a group of ICE agents had been in pursuit of somebody who they say was an undocumented immigrant, who they say was dangerous."
Forman said that the man ran into a building that was then locked by the people inside and they were unable to get in.
"Pretti and the other protesters, according to what we heard, were across the street shooting video," the reporter continued. "They were at some distance here watching it, and they were seeing this evolve on the other side of the street.
"Let's look at the other image here," Forman continued. "Now, you see one of the officers here with pepper spray in his hand, even though again, we're talking about, according to witnesses, only about ten people across the street from them not pushing up on them, not necessarily crowding them."
Witnesses say that agents crossed the street to engage with Pretti and others who were standing there. The video confirms the account.
"And that's when you see this moment where one of the agents pushes Pretti off the road and you hear Pretti yelling, 'Don't push me!' And he says, 'I'm not in traffic, you're in traffic. You came in traffic to come over and push me,'" recounts Foreman.
So, the idea that it was a riot, a claim "we've heard many times," the reporter said, "this is hardly the definition of a riot."
"Then another person gets knocked to the ground and pinned down. If you look at that video, Pretti yells out in this video, 'Hey, leave her alone!' But he doesn't grab an officer. He doesn't approach officers. He just says leave her alone while they're pinning this person down," Foreman narrates.
"So again, all the indications here in this video, which is again, six or seven minutes before the shooting, shows all of the aggression coming from the officers aimed at these people," he concluded. "And then finally we move to the moment where they grabbed Pretti as he's trying to help a person who has also been pushed down."
One shot is heard and the agents all back away from Pretti's body laying on the ground. Three more shots are fired before another pause as agents scramble. Then five more shots are heard.
By Sunday, some in the administration were walking back allegations that Pretti, an ICU nurse for the Veterans Administration, was a terrorist.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche falsely told Fox News, "I don’t think anybody thinks that they were comparing what happened on Saturday to the legal definition of domestic terrorism."
Behind the scenes, Trump is furious with his top advisors for bungling the incident.