18m ago
Testimony from two witnesses to killing of Alex Pretti filed in federal court in ACLU suit against Noem
Robert Mackey
The testimonies of two witnesses to the killing of Alex Pretti were just filed in federal court in Minnesota, as part of
an ongoing lawsuit brought by the ACLU on behalf of Minneapolis protesters against Kristi Noem and other homeland security officials directing the immigration crackdown in the city.
One witness is a woman who filmed the clearest video of his shooting; the other is a physician who lives nearby and said they were initially prevented by federal officers from rendering medical aid to the gunshot victim.
The names of both witnesses were redacted in the publicly available filings.
In
her testimony, woman who filmed the shooting from just behind Pretti identified herself as “a children’s entertainer who specializes in face painting.” She testified that she came to the scene on her way to work because “I’ve been involved in observing in my community because it is so important to document what ICE is doing to my neighbors.”
She described the harrowing scene of Pretti being tackled by federal officers after coming to the aid of another observer they had shoved to the ground and said that she saw no sign of him holding a gun at any point:
The agents pulled the man on the ground. I didn’t see him touch any of them-he wasn’t even turned toward them. It didn’t look like he was trying to resist, just trying to help the woman up. I didn’t see him with a gun. They threw him to the ground. Four or five agents had him on the ground and they just started shooting him. They shot him so many times… I don’t know why they shot him. He was only helping. I was five feet from him and they just shot him…
I have read the statement from DHS about what happened and it is wrong. The man did not approach the agents with a gun. He approached them with a camera. He was just trying to help a woman get up and they took him to the ground.
I feel afraid. Only hours have passed since they shot a man right in front me and I don’t feel like I can go home because I heard agents were looking for me. I don’t know what the agents will do when they find me. I do know that they’re not telling the truth about what happened.
The second witness, a 29-year-old physician, said in
their testimony that they saw the shooting from their apartment window near the scene. Then when they attempted to render medical aid, they were initially prevented from doing so. “At first the ICE agents wouldn’t let me through,” they said. “But none of the ICE agents who were near the victim were performing CPR, and I could tell that the victim was in critical condition. I insisted that the ICE agents let me assess him.”
When the physician finally convinced the agents to let them through, they said that they were confused as to why the victim was on his side but instead of checking his pulse or performing CPR the officers “appeared to be counting his bullet wounds.”
Minnesota governor decries ‘federal occupation’ after another deadly shooting less than three weeks after ICE officer killed Renee Good in city
www.theguardian.com
nypost.com
