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Man Shot & Killed By Federal Agents In Minneapolis, DHS Says Man Was Armed; Alex Pretti's Neighbor Reacts To New Minneapolis Shooting. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired January 24, 2026 - 22:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[22:00:01]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: Hi there, and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Jessica Dean here in New York.

And we're going to take you immediately to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where federal agents shot and killed a 37-year-old man during a protest today. Alex Pretti was an intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Hospital, and his family says in the moments before he was killed, Freddie was trying to protect a woman ICE agents had pushed down. He was doing this while being pepper- sprayed.

CNN has examined video of the deadly encounter and a warning to you as we play it for you. It is graphic. It is very hard to watch. It is disturbing.

The video shows several federal agents wrestling him to the ground. At least one of those agents, as you see there with your own eyes, appears to be kicking him. Later in the video, federal agents fired at least 10 gunshots.

The Department of Homeland Security says officers took this handgun from Freddie and fired in self-defense. However, at no point in any of the videos reviewed by CNN can he be seen wielding a weapon. Minneapolis police say he was a lawful gun owner with a permit. Still, Trump administration officials are calling him, in their words, a domestic terrorist.

Here's what DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has been saying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTI NOEM, DHS SECRETARY: When you perpetuate violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and perpetuate violence, that is the definition of domestic terrorism. This individual who came with weapons and ammunition to stop a law enforcement operation of federal law enforcement officers, committed an act of domestic terrorism. That's the facts.

(END VIDEO CLIP) DEAN: Homeland Security and the FBI are investigating that deadly shooting. State investigators there in Minnesota say federal officials have blocked them from accessing that crime scene. The state's leaders are denouncing the Trump administrations account of the shooting. Governor Tim Walz says the video disproves the Trump administrations, in his words, nonsense and lies about domestic terrorism.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey sends this message to the U.S. president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JACOB FREY (D), MINNEAPOLIS: To President Trump, this is a moment to act like a leader. Put Minneapolis, put America first in this moment. Let's achieve peace. Let's end this operation. And I'm telling you, our city will come back. Safety will be restored. We're asking for you to take action now, to remove these federal agents.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: President Trump has posted a long statement on truth social accusing Minnesota leaders without evidence of covering up theft and fraud in the state and its safety net programs.

Joining us now, CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes, who is there at the White House with the latest.

Kristen, there are so many questions about what exactly happened. Obviously, the Trump administration has its version of events that it continues to triple down on. What is the latest?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. And, Jessica, we've heard from a number of our reporters on the ground saying that these people in Minneapolis, that they're essentially asking ICE to leave, saying that this will calm the tensions, that it will restore peace in the city. And we have talked to the administration all day, and as of now, it doesn't appear as though there's any chance of that happening. In fact, were seeing the administration really doubling down on the policemen of these federal agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as well as really around the country.

And the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was out there in that press conference, played that clip from her. And I will say, I was told by officials that she was in touch with the White House all day that, yes, she was the face of the response, but that message was helped curated by the White House and President Trump, who has privately defended this agent who pulled the trigger.

Now, we heard Noem, essentially, as you just played there, attacking the victim, saying essentially that it was his fault, but also blaming local officials. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NOEM: We don't have this problem in Texas or in Florida because those individuals in those states work with us, and they make sure that they keep peace and calm while they bring criminals to justice. In Minneapolis. Governor Walz and Mayor Frey, they instead choose violence. They instead choose to encourage the destruction of their city and the crime against their people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, Jessica, I do want to point one thing out here because I think this is really fascinating and it's unclear how it's going to play out as of now. But obviously you've done extensive political reporting, as have I. And now, we are seeing a little bit of pushback from the NRA, which is a huge, powerful lobbying group who has an enormous amount of impact on this White House, on this president, and on Republicans as a whole. And they're not pushing back necessarily on any narrative that's specific to the administration.

[22:05:04]

But they're saying that the idea and we've heard this perpetuated by allies, that if you approach a law enforcement agent with a gun, you should expect that you could be shot is dangerous and wrong. That's the words they say, and they are calling for a full investigation. Just of course, a reminder that the gun -- pro-gun group, again, has enormous influence among Republicans and political -- politicians, but also has really gone down this path before in the sense that they have pushed for the idea that if you are a law abiding citizen with a gun, that you can be at a protest with a gun that you can, and we know that, yes, Freddy did have a gun, but that also he legally had a gun, that in Minnesota there is a concealed carry law that he was had his permit to do so.

So, the only reason I know this is just given how powerful this group is, I have reached out to the White House to see if they're in talks with the NRA leadership at all, and how this might factor into this idea, particularly as they call for enhanced investigation. And we're hearing from these local officials saying they've been pushed out of this investigation.

DEAN: Yeah, that is quite interesting indeed. And also worth noting, Kristen, that the Republican chair of the House Homeland Security Committee has now asked for multiple DHS agency heads to come and testify on Capitol Hill. So, again, things to keep an eye on.

Kristen Holmes with the very latest reporting from the White House. Thank you so much for that.

Let's bring in CNN's Tom Foreman, who is here now to walk us through what we're hearing from federal officials, Tom, and what this new video, which is -- which comes from bystanders who were standing right there as all this happened. What it shows.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. If we look at this video to begin with, Jessica, you need to know the narrative of this. No matter how you feel on this issue of protesters or anything else, watch the video and let's go through the narrative.

You will see Mr. Pretti come in here in just a moment, and he moves out toward the middle of the street. Of course, the camera moves a lot. There he is. That's his arm coming up right there. And in a minute now you see him out in the street waving at traffic.

And in a moment, I want you to note the moment when agents first seem to engage with him and I mean approach him as if they see him and want to say something to him.

This car goes past, and now you see an agent moving toward him. Then the camera goes off a little bit. When it comes back, you'll see this woman get shoved to the ground violently. Here you see, Mr. Pretti, ICU nurse, trying to go over to her. They both end up getting pepper sprayed so he looks more like he's trying to get away with her, trying to go somewhere else. He gets yanked back over here.

The agents all crowd around him, and you may notice one agent in the middle who briefly rises up and turns his back right there. Here it comes. There you see the guy right in the middle there, leaning over, and he turns away. And that's when the shooting occurs in all of this.

The amount of time from when the agents first sort of engage with him, when presumably he thought he was just there protesting, shooting video to the time that he winds up dead is about 30 seconds. So, less time than I've been talking right now. That's how fast that happened.

So, Jessica, nonetheless, despite that scene where he does not seem to be going toward agents, he certainly does not seem to be brandishing any kind of weapon. He does not seem to be fighting with agents, except to the degree that they have him pinned down on the ground there. This is what's being characterized by the White House, by the Trump administration as him representing, as we saw some tweets earlier today, where they represented him as being like there to massacre agents and that he was some instant threat, and there's just no real sense here that it says it looks like a situation where he wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.

You watch that video and you're like -- well, he had agents all around him. If that were the case, why wasn't he brandishing a weapon? Why wasn't he doing anything more?

And remember the agent I pointed out in the middle that I wanted you to look at? CNN went through and analyzed a lot of this video, and particularly that video. Watch him stepping away there. He has what certainly looks like the gun in question here.

And that freeze frame, Jessica, that were looking at right there, that is happening somewhere around a second before the shooting happens. The first shot and then the nine shots that come afterward, which would suggest that whatever threat he may have may have presented, if that's the only question, this gun, that it was just being taken away from the scene at that moment, all of which is to say, not that there is clear evidence from any video, because in a lifetime in this business, video can always be a little bit confusing as to exactly what it proves, but what it definitively does not prove at this point is the view being put forward by the Trump administration that this guy was somehow out there stalking and trying to kill agents out there. [22:10:01]

In fact, he looked very much like a man who was trying to get away from them that they yanked back, took a gun off of him, and then he wound up dead again in about 30 seconds.

It's just a remarkable story. And this is why -- this is why people have to want a full investigation, no matter which side you're on in this whole debate. You want a full investigation. If you think the officers did the right thing, you should want, in my experience, a full investigation to prove it, an independent investigation. And if you think that they did the wrong thing, you should want a full investigation, an independent investigation. And if you just don't know, you should want an independent investigation.

That's my experience. And watching this video all day, I'll tell you, it's been quite, a quite a thing to watch.

DEAN: I'm sure. Yeah. You want to get to the truth of what happened in that moment.

Tom Foreman, thank you so much. We really appreciate that.

Let's bring in CNN law enforcement correspondent Whitney Wild, who is there in Minneapolis.

Whitney, describe the scene for us there tonight. We're about 12 hours now after this all unfolded. It has been quite a day there.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Weve seen, you know, large groups of people at the scene where it happened earlier today. It is now very calm here. And in fact, it's difficult to even get close to it. We're about two blocks away from where this happened. Two blocks, one way, two blocks, another way. So, four total.

And what you see behind me is law enforcement vehicle here blocking the intersection. And it proved to be a National Guard vehicle. And what we know, Jessica, is that Governor Tim Walz has mobilized the National Guard. This is something that he talked about considering doing for several days, as we saw protests after protests after the Renee Good shooting, then a second shooting on January 14th.

Now, after this third shooting, he clearly believes it is absolutely necessary. And that is in part at the behest of local officials here, Jessica, because, you know, for several again, for several weeks, we have seen these large protests in this is putting a major strain on the Minneapolis police department and surrounding agencies, including the Hennepin County sheriff's office, who had responded to previous incidents, and Minneapolis police chief Brian O'Hara put it plainly today, saying that his officers are tired and that the national guard is necessary here now, even though this scene is very calm.

This is a resource push, not necessarily a reaction to something that we are seeing that is volatile at this moment because, again, it is very, very quiet here, very calm, about two blocks away from where the shooting happened. What is remarkable here, Jessica, is this is subzero temperature. It is at least five below zero at this point. And we are still seeing people. We saw people moments ago who said that they were headed toward that vigil at night, in the dark, again, in these subzero temperatures.

That is really what we see from these protesters in Minneapolis, that they are not being deterred by subzero weather. They are not going to be deterred by what they are seeing from these ICE agents and other immigration agents that have descended on their city. They are committed to continuing to speak out against what they see happening in their city, which they are strongly against, especially after a third shooting here just blocks from where I'm standing, Jessica.

DEAN: And, Whitney, we also heard from Alex Pretti's family tonight. His parents giving some context around what his life was like. He was an ICU nurse who helped treat veterans, but they said that they really condemned what they called the Trump administration's -- again, these are their words -- sickening lies that they spoke out very forcefully against the narrative that the administration has put out.

WILD: Absolutely. I believe we have that full statement available on CNN.com. You know, there are many people at CNN have tweeted out for themselves. So, it is worth reading. These are grieving parents who, hours after losing their son, put together this statement that makes it very clear that they believe that what the Department of Homeland Security is saying is a disgusting lie.

That is absolutely not true. And they are imploring people to do what they say is tell the truth about their son. Leaving that final line of their statement, Jessica, by saying he was a good man -- Jessica.

DEAN: And, Whitney, what are we expecting tomorrow? Obviously, there has been this tension between local law enforcement and federal law enforcement there. We saw local law enforcement, i.e. state troopers being put out into the community to try to de-escalate when things were really ramping up. Today, what is the indication about tomorrow? Again, you mentioned how freezing cold it is there. Obviously, this major storm also making its way through the country.

WILD: Well, I suppose we will not know we have another law enforcement vehicle coming by here. And it looks like Richfield, which is the surrounding jurisdictions. What we know is that, they have called upon mutual aid here to try to help out again, as I was saying, to flood more resources here because the Minneapolis police officers at this point are just so beaten down by these long hours, these protests over and over.

[22:15:15]

What we will see tomorrow, you know, tomorrow remains to be seen. But certainly, the posture here among local officials is to is to space out -- space out vehicle traffic to limit a potential vehicle incident with protesters should more protesters gather at that vigil scene, just a couple of blocks away from me, where we know Alex lost his life. And what we expect again, is that there will be a strong law enforcement as well as National Guard presence here in case there are large scale protests.

But again, you know, this weather is very serious. By morning it will be negative 10, negative 11. Whether or not that discourages people from coming out, we can't know because earlier this week it was just as bad. And we saw thousands of people take to the streets. So, tomorrow remains to be seen. But we will keep a close eye on it, Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Whitney Wild there for us in Minneapolis. Thank you so much for your reporting.

And still ahead tonight, more on our breaking news. As that growing unrest in Minnesota continues following this second deadly shooting involving federal agents and protesters.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: We continue to follow breaking news tonight out of Minneapolis. Tensions, unrest in the streets after federal agents fatally shot a 37-year-old man in Minneapolis earlier today.

[22:20:01]

It was all captured on video. We will play it for you, but we do want you to know it is disturbing and hard to watch.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

DEAN: Law enforcement sources tell CNN the man killed has been identified as Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti. He was an ICU at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Now, the Republican chair of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee has formally requested the heads of multiple DHS agencies testify in a full panel hearing.

We're going to bring in John Miller, CNN's chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst.

And, John, there are so many questions tonight that remain unanswered despite the narrative and the -- just confidence in the narrative coming from the federal government. State and local officials have a very different take that we are hearing from them. We're hearing from a Republican senator, Bill Cassidy, who says that the only way forward is this full joint federal and state investigation.

We also have this news that Minnesota authorities have now sued the Trump administration, claiming that they took from the scene of the shooting some things.

So, help people understand in terms of trying to get to the bottom of what actually happened this rupture between local law enforcement, local officials and federal officials and how you get the truth in any investigation moving forward. JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well,

it's certainly more complicated than it should be. I mean, you have a situation where you have federal agents involved in a shooting of a man in the street who is killed. Then you have the local police show up as a crowd is starting to gather, and they want to take control of the crime scene. But according to the chief of police, first, they're denied access to the crime scene.

Now, that's important because the crime scene is going to make up the shell casings from each one of those at least 10 shots that were fired. And where they landed, which is going to give people an idea of how many shooters there were. Was it one agent who fired all those shots? Was it three agents?

The ballistic evidence is critical there. The gun itself. And what you have is this fractured thing where first ICE is taking over the scene, then the police get there to secure the scene, but then ICE decides or CBP, the DHS agents decide we need to leave the area because we are going to become the target. If a crowd gathers this is a very disorganized approach.

And where were going here, Jessica, is tonight on a Saturday night, the IACP, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the largest lobbying organization of police chiefs in the world, especially in the United States, came out with a statement calling on the White House to convene a meeting of state and local and federal law enforcement agencies to find a constructive path forward.

That's a real sign of a kind of fracture between local law enforcement, state law enforcement and their federal partners that I have not seen in my 18 years in law enforcement or 25 years in the news business. This is fairly unprecedented.

DEAN: I think that's such a great point, John. And for people watching who we live in this politicized world now, where every group is either left or right or pro or anti or whatever this is a group that to your point, doesn't come out and say things like this often, if ever.

MILLER: No, it was a -- it was a measured statement. But let's get down to what it was. It's a cry for help. Police chiefs and police officers, police departments, state and local, are finding themselves caught between the forces of ICE agents.

Let's do the math. Right? You're in Minneapolis. You have 600 police officers. The federal government drops 2,000 ICE agents on you. You have a bad incident with Renee Good where her life is taken in a controversial incident.

[22:25:06]

And rather than tone down operations or shift to another location, they drop another thousand. So now you've got 600 cops, 3,000 federal agents that are out there that dwarf the size of the police department that is there to protect and serve, and a community that has turned to some degree, to a large degree, has turned on that federal effort to the point that the governor is calling in the National Guard, and he's trying to make the distinction. Look, I've got 3,000 federal agents that I have to keep separated from demonstrators, and I've got police who have a whole city to police.

And these aren't the national guards being sent by Donald Trump or the White House. These are your friends and neighbors. This is the state national guard that are coming on behalf of the governor. It's causing a lot of confusion in terms of who are the good guys, who are the bad guys? And what public safety means.

DEAN: Yes. And also, you think about local law enforcement. You know this. Well, it is really contingent upon their relationship with the community. How much does the community trust them? That's how good they're going to be at doing their jobs, how effective they are at de- escalating things. And when they get thrown into -- yeah.

MILLER: Jessica, I mean, because one thing we know is that DHS will be in Minneapolis until they're done and like they have in Chicago and Washington and Portland and other places, they will move on to the next city, New Orleans. You know, all the towns they've been through, local law enforcement is left behind with all of the shattered nerves and broken relationships and people who will now view law enforcement, including their local police, differently because of what happened.

And this is -- this is why you're having an organization of chiefs of police saying, we need the White House to get everybody down there and have a discussion because we're breaking something that it took us years to build.

DEAN: Yeah. All right. John Miller, as always, always great to have you for some context and analysis around this day and what we've seen unfold. Thank you so much.

And for more on this, let's bring in Chris Clem, a retired chief patrol agent for the U.S. Border Patrol.

Chris, thank you so much for your time tonight. We're really glad to have you.

I want to just start first with we just told everybody a little bit about your background as you're watching what happened today. Can I get what your thoughts are, what your reaction is?

CHRIS CLEM, RETIRED CHIEF PATROL AGENT, U.S. BORDER PATROL: Yeah. Good evening. Jessica. You know, certainly when you have a law enforcement shooting and the results of that, that's tragic for everybody involved. There's a family mourning the loss of a loved one. And at the same time, there's a family relieved that their officers and agents are coming home.

You know, there are so many things that are leading up to this that that will come over in the next several days as the investigation gets put together. But I will tell you at the time of the shooting is what I'm kind of focusing on is you have, you know, really an active, resistant, assaultive, combative -- you know, the victim actually with five or six agents trying to subdue him and control him. And that's when things got really crazy and ultimately led to led to the shooting.

And that's the part that, you know, is troubling is we don't know what all the facts are right now. We've seen video, we've seen different angles. We've seen him resisting and fighting. But at the same time, we don't know what led up to it completely.

And you know, its just troubling. And I will say that, you know, this is something that needs to get addressed, and I would -- I would just mention that I think if the governor and the mayor would, really kind of tone it down and direct local police to help keep those protesters down and calm some stuff down, those calls, the White House would more than likely be met to try to find that common ground, because I agree with the earlier guest that we need to find some common ground and get some solutions.

DEAN: I want to ask you, what is the training? As someone who is a member of Border Patrol? What is the training in this situation? When this person is struggling. But there's clearly six people with him. And you're exactly right. There are a lot of questions that still need to be answered. We do have this video.

But we know no frame of the video. Do we see him brandishing a weapon, holding a weapon at any pointing it at them? What is the training in that moment? And in fact, and part of that video we see, agent taking away what appears to be a gun before those shots are fired. What is the training around a scenario like that?

CLEM: Right, right. Theres so many moving parts at that. At that moment, right? And so that's difficult.

But typically, in that situation when you have somebody that you're trying to take down, there's like a stacking technique, which I think is what they were trying to do, get on top of him to control him because he was at that point being assaultive and combative.

[22:30:01]

And so that's what I think they were trying to do, is they were not released his hands. So --

DEAN: Hitting him.

CLEM: Absolutely. And you're going to do that if you're not giving the hands, especially if you think there's a weapon involved, which they may or may not known at the time. But when you're striking to try to get control, those are the situations that you can do.

Now, once he would have, if he would have been taken into control, and the in the kicks and the strikes and striking would have continued, then we would have had a problem. But he was not under control. When one of those agents was doing the striking, he was trying to get control and maybe get his hands, break his hands free, and then all of a sudden it, you know, we hear the shots fired and there we go.

But again, this is trained. We train like this. Border patrol at the basic academy. And throughout our use of force training, we look at these type of scenarios throughout our career and my 27-1/2 years as an agent, we trained every quarter on these type of situations.

DEAN: And do you train to be with American citizens in cities like this?

CLEM: Well, we've had -- you know, we do have those type of training. We at the basic academy work on crowd control. Throughout my career, both as an agent and as a supervisor and as a chief, we always worked on these type of situations, especially with our special response teams, our crowd control teams, our mobile response teams.

So yes, we do train that way. Unfortunately, the environment with all the protesters coming out against us has created where they've had to have more agents. I would like to see less agents out there doing it, but unfortunately, they've got to protect themselves because we have so much of this protest going on.

But yes, we do engage with citizens. I've arrested many U.S. citizens in my career for criminal acts. It's part of the job. It's not just always at the border. Sometimes it's away from the border.

DEAN: And is de-escalation part of that training?

CLEM: We -- absolutely. Officer present is -- presence is usually the first part of control and de-escalation. By being there and giving voice commands, then sometimes you have to get physical and then it goes to a less lethal or possibly deadly force.

But we have seen play out in all the videos that just officer presence ends up escalating and agitating the crowd. So that's why it seems like it goes so quickly from the agents showing up to doing something like, you know, pepper spray, tear gas and then going into, you know, some of these hands on confrontations.

DEAN: It's just and I think you can appreciate this. I think a lot of people out there are really at a loss for how it escalated in less than or about 30s from him helping this, you know, this woman getting pushed down, him going after the woman, the officers, you know, getting on him, him struggling and pushing back against them. What we see in the video, as you just noted, to 10 shots being fired.

CLEM: Yeah. You know what? That's the -- that's the perils of law enforcement. And I think anybody, any veteran law enforcement, you know, whether it's a state or municipality or federal agent. We know that these situations go from just walking up and saying hello to deadly force that quickly. You -- there's so many cases of going to a 911 call, knock on a door and shots are fired. It happens so quickly.

Unfortunately, this is a really a tinderbox right now in Minneapolis, and these things are escalating much quicker. I think anybody would like there's no one in my network and my circle of friends and colleagues that ever want to get into these situations, but we know when we took that oath of office, these things have to happen sometimes, and they don't always end well.

DEAN: Yeah. And just this last question, just, just, just that bit about the gun being moved out before the shots are fired. So, we see the officer with the or, I'm sorry, the agent with the gun moving away and then the shots are fired. Is that appropriate?

CLEM: You know, that's the one piece that we don't know for fact. There is a clearly, we see a gun coming out. Is that --was that Alex's gun? We don't -- I don't know that for sure.

So, I can't speak on that. But securing evidence and securing the scene is critical. But because of the chaos, I can see where that may have been part of the situation. However, normally and again, there are no routine or normal shootings, you would want to try to keep things as they lie. But given the situation with all the people showing up and the whistles being blown, there was a lot of chaos.

And so, they may have done things a little bit differently. Obviously, it's going to play out in the investigation. I think when we find out what whose weapon that is. Was it the agents? Was that the victims? Then we'll be able to piece those stories together. But again, this is unfolding so quickly.

DEAN: Right. And I think the question is if that's him, then obviously there's no threat at that moment. And yet the gunshots come after that. And to your point, we're going to have to wait.

Hopefully, there will be a full investigation.

Chris Clem, thank you. We do appreciate it.

CLEM: Thank you, Jessica.

DEAN: Tensions high in Minneapolis. As we just said after the second deadly shooting involving immigration agents in that city. Still ahead, reaction from the family of the man killed today, who are calling the administrations account of events, in their words, sickening lies.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:38:17]

DEAN: OK. We continue to update you now on the breaking news out of Minneapolis. The family of the man shot and killed by U.S. Border Patrol is denying the official account from the administration of that incident. They say, Alex Pretti, you see him there in the baseball hat, was clearly holding a phone, not a gun, before this incident. Earlier today, they say he was trying to protect a woman who was pushed by ICE agents while he was being pepper sprayed.

Homeland Security saying the agent fired defensive shots after an armed resistance -- armed person resisted attempts to take his weapon away from him. A top border patrol official later criticized state and city leaders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREGORY BOVINO, BORDER PATROL COMMANDER-AT-LARGE: We will not allow violence against our law enforcement officers, and we need state and local help. State and local law enforcement to help us coordinate to get violent criminals off the street. Mayor Frey and Chief O'Hara just a few minutes ago did the opposite of that by omitting the fact that the suspect had a gun and magazines full of ammunition.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Now, Gregory Bovino, who you saw there, did not say if he pulled a gun before he was shot. Minneapolis police say he had a legal gun permit. They do believe he was a U.S. citizen. Today's incident comes just after two weeks or two weeks after Minneapolis resident Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE age.

And Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar had this message for immigration officials.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): Our message is really clear and straightforward. We need ICE out of Minnesota.

[22:40:02]

They are not making us more safe. As the tragic, tragic killing this morning as people saw it viscerally on that video shows us they're making us less safe with 3,000 agents, which, of course, includes border control outnumbering the sworn police officers in Minneapolis and Saint Paul by three to one, and even larger than the 10 Metropolitan Police Departments. This is completely out of whack, completely out of balance. And now three people have been shot, two resulting in death, one Renee Good, mother of three. And now, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old Minneapolis man, a citizen, also a nurse. They both have families that love them very much. This city has been under siege

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: And joining us now is Daniel Brunner. He's a retired FBI special agent and president of the Brunner Sierra Group.

Thank you for being with us on this Saturday night.

I know you've been on our air earlier today as well. And I was watching -- we were watching some of those clips. And in your -- it sounded like, in your opinion, you believe this was excessive force. Can you just explain your thought process behind what you saw today

DANIEL BRUNNER, RETIRED FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Absolutely. So, when you're a federal agent, you receive extensive training on how to deal with the situations, just like your previous guest. We extensively train on different tactics on how to subdue an individual. They escalated the situation. You could see Mr. Pretti clearly with his back to the agents, as he was protecting the woman that was down with the backpack. They continued to escalate the situation to grab at him.

And that's -- that was their decision. There's nothing wrong with that. If they want to detain him, if they want to arrest him for whatever reason, that they can come up with. But here's where it got out of hand. They started hitting him to subdue him. He was in the in a -- in a -- in a prone position. You clearly could see that he was not swinging. They could consider that resisting arrest. That's fine.

At which point the individual, the agent with the gray jacket, you could see him remove what is allegedly the weapon that Mr. Pretti had in his waistband. He exits this area, but you see another agent with a green -- with a green shirt and he's got his weapon already out in his hand while he's still attempting to subdue Mr. Pretti.

That is exactly what we are trained not to do. Do not have your weapon in your hand. If you are trying to subdue. If you want to be the individual with the gun covering the situation, you will -- you come back and let the people that are working. The reason is why is if you could have a sympathetic discharge of your firearm, if you think you're squeezing your hand because you need to affect an arrest, put a handcuff on. You can accidentally discharge your weapon because your finger may be on the trigger.

So those are some tactics that were which in my appearance -- in my opinion, were wrong. And they escalated the situation, at which point, once the first round went off, the other agents who drew their weapon, you could see other agents draw their weapon. And if they fired their rounds, they have to account for those rounds.

They have to say they see a threat from Mr. Pretti. They see him holding a gun or getting ready to conduct some sort of hostile action, which they felt was a threat to themselves. They are responsible for those bullets as well, as well as the first shooter.

Each one of those bullets, they[re responsible for what happens to that bullet. And like I said, in my opinion, this is this was has the appearance of a bad shoot. I hope the investigation will be conducted by FBI in Minnesota, and hopefully, we'll get the right answers.

DEAN: Yeah. I think that's such an interesting point that you make about if you are going to draw your weapon that you take yourself out of the immediate, I don't know what the technical term is, but essentially you're not trying to subdue that person anymore. You're kind of on the on the outside of it. So, you -- so you don't have that sympathetic fire, as you noted, which seems like a key, key thing to keep in mind.

You mentioned the investigation. How critical do you think it is that local authorities are involved in that investigation?

BRUNNER: I find it ironic that Mr. Bovino and Kristi Noem are asking for cooperation by the state and locals with their operations. But yet when you have a situation like this, which is a clear use of force, deadly force in two situations where the locals, the state and locals have to conduct because murder, whether it be the homicide or death or however it would be defined, is a state violation. They have to conduct the state investigation parallel to a federal investigation, if there's a civil rights violation.

[22:45:01] The point is to investigate it. If there is nothing, if there are no violations of the law, then the investigation will be closed. But allowing the investigation to proceed is important to work with the state and locals. I was an FBI agent in New Jersey in the United States for 20 years when there was a use of force. The state and the state entities came in and the FBI brought in a shooting review team from out of state so that there was no conflict of interest with the local, state FBI.

And they worked together, cooperating, exchanging information to make sure that the -- all the teams had all the information together. So, it's important that an investigation is done correctly with the cooperation of state and locals, because there may be state crimes that were violated here today. And as well as the previous shooting.

So it's extremely important that there be cooperation, just like they're asking for cooperation here, but they're rejecting FBI -- FBI is rejecting the state and locals from doing their jobs.

DEAN: And you, as we've noted many times, have were former federal agent. You know what that is like. We are now seeing and what you're getting at kind of underscores this. The -- you know, what -- what's going -- this fissure between local law enforcement and local authorities and federal authorities, and we even saw the chiefs of police coming out as John -- as our colleague John Miller was reporting and asking for a way forward because it is putting such extreme pressure on these local police departments.

What do you make of that dynamic as it relates to all of this?

BRUNNER: I think that the dynamic that is continuing to be created in Minneapolis and other states in Maine, with the surge of how many officers have overwhelming force and then -- but yet they're asking for cooperation with state and local is a little bit difficult because it's so overwhelming to the state and locals. And you're getting calls from the local community to the local police department requesting assistance. And they're getting -- so they're getting overwhelmed themselves with calls from people in their community requesting assistance. And it's becoming difficult.

I am very good friends with, you know, hundreds of state and local law enforcement in New Jersey. I couldn't have done any of my federal investigations without them. It would have been extraordinarily difficult. Investigated gangs, cartels throughout the state of New Jersey. And I couldn't have done it with the state and locals.

If there is a fracture between communication between state and local and federal law enforcement, it is a very big fracture. This is -- this fracture is continuing to grow and grow wider. The distrust between state and locals and federal law enforcement, whether they be ICE officials, CBP or FBI, is, if that continues to grow, there will be lack of communication, lack of cooperation, and there could be leading to more violence.

Hopefully, the state and locals there in Minnesota will come to the aid and the assistance of officers that are in dire need and situation. Those state and locals are trained in riot control. They're trained in crowd control.

Those federal officers are not. They are not trained in crowd control. They're not trained in riot control. FBI agents are not street agents. CBP, ICE agents, officers, they're trained in dealing with a situation, a cartel member, a drug, a drug mule. They're not trained in crowd control.

So, I think this could lead to more dangerous situations. And I hopefully were able to dial back the rhetoric, and there will be the communication, which is direly needed in this situation.

DEAN: And I think you make such a good point, which is what the training is, which is what I was talking about with our last guest as well, but just the differences in training and how those local officers are heavily trained in crowd control, in de-escalation with citizens in these sorts of situations, whereas federal agents are not typically, you know, out there with protest -- American citizen protesters like they have been in these various cities.

BRUNNER: Absolutely. It really grows to a difficult situation. In this situation, you could see that first agent is encountering Mr. Pretti, and he in the woman with the backpack. He initiated institutes pepper spray. For whatever reason, he made that determination and that woman falls to the ground. Alex turns around and puts his back to the agent, and then he's helping that woman up.

So, at no point was Mr. Pretti a threat to that officer who had conducted the agent who had conducted the pepper spray, but that -- that agent decided to continue to escalate the situation by grabbing him by the back of the jacket and pulling him off for whatever reason, was to get to Mr. Pretti or to get to the woman that was on the ground, and also was not a threat.

So, at this point in my situation, based on this, on these videos, I see this agent as escalating the situation. Mr. Pretti was not a threat. He was not facing the agent. He grabbed the -- Mr. Pretti by the back of the jacket and was ripping him off.

[22:50:01]

And that's when the other agents descended upon the situation to assist that agent for whatever reason they determined. But that's where it continued to escalate.

That is essential training that law enforcement is, you know, local, state and local law enforcement have. CBP officers, FBI agents, ICE officers, they're not trained in hand-to-hand constantly on a daily basis. It's situational. We get that training monthly and, you know, quarterly.

But it's a lot different when it's protesters. It's U.S. citizens. And this situation, you saw beforehand before the shooting, you saw Mr. Pretti was just videotaping. He was allowing traffic. He wasn't blocking traffic. So whatever reason, they decided to escalate the situation. That's where it went. And this has ended up an unfortunate situation where Mr. Pretti was killed. DEAN: Yeah. All right, Daniel Brunner, thank you. We appreciate it.

BRUNNER: My pleasure.

DEAN: We're going to continue our breaking news coverage of that deadly shooting in Minneapolis. Still ahead, the victims next door neighbor disputes the narrative about him that has been put out by immigration officials. That's next.

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[22:54:05]

DEAN: Going back now to Minneapolis where we've had breaking news all day, tensions escalating after a protester was shot and killed by federal agents. Alex Pretti was an intensive care nurse who worked at a Veterans Affairs hospital.

We're going to show you this video. We do want to warn you that it is graphic and it is disturbing.

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DEAN: You see in the video, Homeland Security is there. Homeland Security saying agents fired in self-defense, they say approached Border Patrol officers with a nine millimeter semiautomatic handgun. But videos including this one suggest otherwise.

This shows Pretti moving between an agent and a woman with federal officers who the federal officers had shoved into the ground. He is then sprayed with a chemical irritant and dragged to his knees. Officers later opened fire at least 10 times while he's there on the ground.

[22:55:03]

Now, earlier, CNN spoke with Pretti's neighbor and he told our Sara Sidner Pretti was not the person described by immigration officials.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS GRAY, ALEX PRETTI'S NEIGHBOR: Alex was my neighbor. I remember Alex walking his dog by my house, but Alex said, I want the world to remember was out on the streets yesterday with 50,000 people on general strike in a mass, nonviolent protest. He was an ICU nurse.

He was a worker like myself. He was part of the fabric of my community, along with immigrants and many other people who represent our neighborhood and the people destroying our neighborhood are these ICE agents who are running around out of control, who have done nothing to make my life safer, done nothing to make my life better. This is not about crime. It's not about fraud.

SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Greg Bovino, one of the commanders with ICE, made these statements about Alex after he was killed by ICE agents, saying that he came here to massacre law enforcement agents. Does that match the person that you know, the neighbor that came over to your home when you had a house warming?

GRAY: This is the same Greg Bovino who is overseeing the massacre of my neighbors who drove around my neighborhood throwing tear gas with a motorcade and then ran for cover when people nonviolently disrupted him. Everything they say about my neighbors is a lie.

These are ordinary people who are trying to keep their neighborhood together and to stay whole. And that's why I think the next step is to have a mass nonviolent march. We need another general strike to shut down the flow of profits to Trump and his billionaire allies, because that's what it's going to take to win.

SIDNER: When you talk about Alex, there is a whole apparatus here, right, where people text each other and they tell each other what's going on and they use whistles if they see ICE in the neighborhood. Was he part of that? Was he here because he wanted to protest and ask ICE to leave the community?

GRAY: At this point, everyone is a part of that. Everyone has a whistle and every shop there's a "know your rights" training. The whole community is standing together against this occupation of ICE, which is part of a divide and rule tactic that the Trump regime is pushing on us because they have no answers for the real issues that working class people face.

My health care bills will not go down because these deportations, I won't get a job because these deportations my life will not improve, and it doesn't make my life any better. This is about divide and rule, and about terrorizing people. And that's what this occupation is about.

And that's what Alex was fighting for by taking film of someone getting abducted. And that's what they killed him for. And that's why I think, Alex, I want people to remember, was part of a mass, nonviolent resistance. And we need to do that again.

But this time, we need to make it bigger and stronger until they leave. And they don't just leave Minneapolis, but they leave everywhere. I don't want them to go from my city to some other city. I want this to end forever

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: We want to say, thanks so much for watching tonight. I'm Jessica Dean here in New York.

We're going to have more news when we come right back.

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