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Bovino: Immigration Mission Will Continue "Unabated" in Minneapolis; Historic Winter Storm Batters Two-Thirds of the U.S.; 17K-plus Flights Cancelled as Fierce Winter Storm Hits. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired January 25, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:00]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: I want to go out to Sara Sidner who is standing by there in Minneapolis who was also listening to all of that.

Sara, I know you've got some of our colleagues with you as well. Also worth nothing from Gregory Bovino there, it seems like the line he is drawing is that there are consequences to the decisions and that those consequences could be death as it was yesterday.

Sara, I will let you take it from there.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yes, those are consequences that people here look at and those are consequences that people here look at and say, how dare you? How dare you not be trained enough when you have several officers standing over a single person not being able to control the situation without shooting him multiple times to death.

He talked about again, about a riot. There was no riot. If you look at the scene from the video, there were people that were standing around trying to document what was going on.

What is happening here is that people are gathering very solemnly to remember the Alex Pretti that they knew, and that they are learning about for those who did not know him.

He was 37 years old, an ICU nurse, someone who people here really respected, and he was also a person who made himself available as an observer to the actions of ICE, which had already turned deadly in this town and also the second shooting that happened.

So, he was the third person to be shot by ICE in less than a month. People here just simply cannot understand how that possibly could happen if officers were trained. We are also learning from the Governor, it is very fascinating to hear what Governor Tim Walz said and hear what Commander Bovino said. It is like they are on two different planets.

And then you throw the video into the mix and the witnesses into the mix, and much of what you are hearing from DHS as to what happened here does not show up on the video. So, protesters here are saying they have zero confidence in any investigation that is going to take place if it is only DHS who is going to be doing the investigation or the feds.

We do know from the state government now that they are launching their own investigation, and we now know that they have started that investigation in earnest. We saw the members of the state investigative team here on the ground in a group. We know that they have already talked to one of the witnesses, because I was in contact with one of the witnesses, and that they have been looking for video at some of these different restaurants that line this area, this area known as Eat Street here locally, where there are a ton of restaurants, many of them, including the donut shop, still open to those who are here to try to help them out and they are sort of like a triage inside with things like gloves and hand warmers to try to help people here.

They are deeply disturbed about what happened outside of their businesses as well.

Joining me now is our chief justice and crime correspondent, Shimon Prokupecz, who has been listening to all of this.

We talked earlier. It is significant that you are seeing the state say, you're not going to cut us out of this investigation this time, as they tried to do, or as they did with the shooting by an ICE agent of Renee Good.

Give us some sense of what that means, Shimon, and what you're learning about the investigation.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: You know, Sara, listening to Greg Bovino, I am getting a return in my ear, so listening to Greg Bovino say the things that he is saying about protesters and saying the things about how choices have consequences, that is very, very significant, because what he is essentially doing and what the administration is doing is that they are blaming Alex for what happened here.

They are time and time again, where we hear from them, they are saying that he made the choice to come here. He made the choice to enter a crime scene. What was the crime scene?

The Border Patrol and the Immigration officials are on the streets in Minneapolis in a very, very public way, making arrests, detaining people. That is not always the normal way in which you do these operations. ICE does -- yes, they do targeted operations. They do them in the early morning hours.

I have been out with ICE officials when they do this, 6:00 in the morning in New York City, we got in vehicles and we went out and they had a set of targets.

What we are seeing on the streets here is unprecedented in so many ways. They are doing it so publicly. So, what is happening? These are protesters. And if you agree or disagree with how they are going about this and how they are tracking Immigration officials around this city, that's a whole separate issue.

[15:05:07]

But the fact of the matter is they are protesters, and yes, they are agitating these immigration officials and it is very clear that they are getting under their skin.

But to say that this individual, Alex made a choice. He came here and so because of the choice that he made here, he is suffering for that choice and he is now dead. But what exactly gave these law enforcement officials the justification to kill him? They are not really answering because time and time again, when you ask them, was he brandishing the weapon? That is a key point in all of this. Was he pointing the weapon? Was the gun in his hand? And time and time again they have refused to answer that question.

They could simply do it. They know by now whether this is the case or not, and they are refusing to do that and it is very worrisome. I know it is very worrisome for the people who live here. I have been talking to people at a donut shop here, which has become the focal point. They cannot understand how it is that our government can say things that we can clearly see with our own eyes is not true and how things developed here, and how things occurred here, is not the way the federal government is describing it. And that is the thing I keep hearing here, and people are just so worried about what this means for the future.

In terms of this investigation, it is very -- it is unprecedented to see a state law enforcement investigative body such as the BCA, which is an incredibly -- you know, it has a very high reputation, have to go and get search warrants, search warrants to search in their own streets. That's what they did here. They went to a judge to say, we need a search warrant to search in the streets. I have never heard of a situation like this.

There are so many things happening here that are so unprecedented. And for everyone here, it is very concerning, for leading law enforcement officials in this state, the Police Chief of this city who has come out and said, what is happening here is unconstitutional. That is unprecedented.

And they are going to keep saying what they are going to say and I think it is very concerning, certainly, Sara, to hear Gregory Bovino, who is running this entire operation, comparing this to like some kind of a bank robbery. These people were on -- Alex was on the street as a protester and yes, he was filming those Border Patrol agents, and then we see how the events unfolded and it is very troublesome that here we are, day two, yet still, we have no transparency here from the federal government.

SIDNER: Shimon Prokupecz reporting for us there.

I am going to call a spade a spade. If the videos are the only thing that investigators have that we have all seen, they are lying. If they have something different, they have not said so, but there was no riot and we never saw Alex Pretti with a weapon in his hand, which is how DHS Secretary Noem described him approaching officers. There is not a single video showing that. What we do see is Alex Pretti holding a cell phone, not a gun. We do know he had a gun on him, but he also had a legal permit to carry. So, if the videos that we have all seen and the community has all seen are the only pieces of evidence that DHS has, and they are not saying anything different, only saying that he did these things like holding a gun or approaching with a gun, it is just not true. That is what witnesses are also saying, that what they saw was a man who was trying to document, ended up in the middle of things, trying to protect a woman from ICE who was getting sprayed as they both got sprayed with pepper spray, and he ended up dead.

We will be hearing more, I am sure, from authorities, from federal authorities who say they are investigating, but we also know, as you well pointed out, Shimon, that state authorities are involved in this one. They are investigating as well to see what details they can get, but they are not getting something that they normally would get, which is cooperation between the two, the state and the federal government, which is a usual course of things in a shooting like this, although unprecedented, it has now happened three times here in this city in less than a month.

I want to go now to, I think we have our Josh Campbell, who is with us, senior reporter, Josh Campbell, who is with us, who has been watching all of this.

You are familiar with the way that these investigations take place between federal and state agencies, between federal and local agencies.

[15:10:10]

I just want to get your take on what it is that you have seen throughout all of this and what is surprising to you as you watch this play out -- Josh.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara. I mean, I think the biggest takeaway in looking at all of this, it appears that, you know, as I've been saying, this Department of Homeland Security is really risking a crisis of confidence in its credibility based on the communication that we are hearing from them, based on what they are saying to the public.

And, look, you know, tensions are obviously high. I look at all of these use of force incidents that happened. I try to look at them objectively and unemotionally. It is clear that they are trying to have two things be true at the same time, and that is when pressed on their statements and when pressed on what happens, they say that, well, there will be an investigation that will take place. We don't know what type of investigation, how that will look, how credible that will be and how transparent that will be.

But also, we've heard numerous officials essentially come out and pre- judge exactly what happened and those two things just don't square. You typically do not see senior officials come out and completely exonerate an agent or an officer before the investigation has even taken place. And one thing -- I want to play you some sound, so as you listen to this, compare what Greg Bovino, the senior Border Patrol person there, said yesterday in the immediate aftermath of this incident compared to what he told our colleague, Dana Bash this morning on CNN and just look at the comparison and really focus on his conclusion yesterday, when this investigation was just in its infancy. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREGORY BOVINO, U.S. BORDER PATROL SECTOR CHIEF OF THE EL CENTRO SECTOR IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR AND POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you have any evidence that yes, he might -- he had a gun on his person. Was he brandishing it?

BOVINO: We heard the law enforcement officer say "Gun! Gun! Gun!" So at some point they knew there was a gun. So again, that is going to be part of that investigation as to what was happening on the ground there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: So those two things -- those two things simply cannot square. You can't come out and say, this looked like this person was trying to massacre those agents. And then again, when pressed, say, well, there will be an investigation. We will actually get the details and tell you exactly what happened. This is about transparency. It is about public credibility in law enforcement and that is what they risk here.

And the final point I will note is we are getting some critical new reporting from our colleague, Priscilla Alvarez, who has been talking with sources within the Department of Homeland Security, of course, where our colleague Juliette Kayyem once worked, she is hearing Homeland Security people who themselves are raising concern about what they're seeing in the messaging from DHS.

They've looked at these videos themselves. They're concerned about the actions of these agents and within the Border Patrol, they are wondering, is this worth it for our reputation to keep these agents here in this very fraught situation where there is all this tension and then, you know, you obviously continue to see leaders come out and exonerate agents after every use of force incident, which only seems to inflame things, as local officials have claimed in their view.

And so that's critical inside. This organization is not a monolith. It is worth noting that there is consternation even within DHS about what its leaders are doing.

SIDNER: Yes, Josh Campbell, I do appreciate your reporting and your expertise on this as someone who has seen how these things normally play out and just how irregular it is, what is playing out now between federal, state and local authorities and just the number of shootings, the sheer number of shootings at the hands of federal agents in the local community is just highly, highly unusual.

I do now want to go to Juliette Kayyem. Juliette, you have been watching all this unfold yourself. You have seen the videos yourself, as have most people at this point in time. They are everywhere on social media. They are everywhere in the media at large.

I just want to get your take on what you've seen in the video and what you're hearing from the commander-in-charge, Greg Bovino and DHS at large.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I want to pick up on the theme that Josh had, which is that they are making broad statements about the victim, but they also are making broad statements about people who don't like ICE generally.

And then when pressed on, well, why was there this shooting? They cannot answer that question. So, Bovino's press conference just now, to be clear, was deflection. It was nonresponsive. It was generic why- don't-they-like-us attitude. I sort of thought like he is just upset that people are angry, like that is law enforcement.

We are a vibrant democracy. People are allowed to criticize. There is no -- ICE doesn't control the streets of Minneapolis.

[15:15:10]

I saw a number that the Minneapolis Police Department confiscated 900 guns last year. So, even if you buy the argument that he shouldn't have brought a gun and none of them with the fatality against the suspect.

So, law enforcement, good law enforcement, I should say, knows how to do that. ICE is not law enforcement. It is an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and that distinction is very important to make. Bovino comes out as if they are a police force. He sometimes comes out as if they are a military force, they are neither.

They are trained on what is called interior immigration enforcement that is targeted against what we were told The White House would target against, which is the most violent criminals and immigrants or illegal immigrants in this country and they would deport them. That changed, and now ICE roams the streets in what is clearly antagonism against a political infrastructure.

So, it is just wrong to call this law enforcement in the way that you and I and josh, you know, understand it, which is, you know, there is a bank robbery and you go after the bank robbers.

So there is something -- I want to pick up on the second thing Josh was saying, which is I am hearing the same thing, Bovino knows, that he is not telling the truth and he knows that yesterday, he tried to create a narrative that no one, not even many Republicans, not even the House GOP, Homeland Security Committee is buying.

He is trying to unwind that with this promise of an investigation, though it won't include objective personnel. He is -- the Department of Homeland Security is at war with itself. Now, many people watching won't care. They will do a sweeping -- you know, all of them are bad. But what is happening within the Department is a Secretary who is likely, my personal opinion, likely not to survive in the next week or two, not known for her qualifications or her substantive knowledge.

You have one agency of many agencies at DHS, seemingly out-of-control and professional agents within those agencies who see what is going on and do not like it. So, that's not great. I am willing to admit that.

But, that is a recipe for what you are seeing now, which is Bovino trying to make us not believe our eyes and our ears, and what we see, and how this unfolds, The White House can end this now and they know it and there are some hints that they are beginning to understand what the polling is showing them. What is happening on the streets and may begin to unwind this.

SIDNER: Juliette Kayyem, you give a very stunning point where you're saying from your perspective that DHS is at war with itself. People here say DHS is also at war with the people here in Minneapolis who are standing up against ICE.

Thank you so much for your analysis and your calmness in going through each and every detail here that are so important.

Thank you also to our Shimon Prokupecz who talked about the investigation that is happening here. We saw for ourselves the state investigation investigators are already on the ground gathering information from witnesses and video. And thank you to our Josh Campbell, giving us some real insight into how things are supposed to work, but how they are completely broken at this point.

I am going to toss it back to you, Jessica, where we are here at the memorial for Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old latest person to be killed by federal authorities here in Minneapolis.

DEAN: All right, Sara, thank you so much for covering all of that. We are going to be back in touch with you very, very shortly.

We do have our eye on this other big story today, which is this historic winter storm that is bringing heavy snow and ice, soaring power outages and bitterly cold temperatures to two-thirds of the country. Right now, snow piling up in the northeast. This is it, blanketing New York's Central Park.

In Pennsylvania, neighbors are armed with shovels, trying to keep up with the intense storm. Much of the Southern United States is now encased in ice. This is what it looks like in Tennessee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Completely frozen. What the heck?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:20:04] DEAN: That is some solid ice. Even firefighters, they are having a hard time. Crews had to tow a fire truck that got stuck in an ice- covered hill. This was in Alabama yesterday.

And we have crews spread out all across the country for you. CNN's Gloria Pazmino is here in New York City, Ed Lavandera is in Dallas, Texas, and our meteorologist, Allison Chinchar, is in our CNN Weather Center.

Let's start first with Gloria.

I came in to work today. It was quite snowy. I think its transitioned to sleet while I've been here, Gloria. What are you seeing?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right, Jessica. It is basically sleet coming down right now. It has been that way for about an hour or so, and they actually have just crossed over the seven-inch mark inside Central Park. We have gotten a little more than seven inches so far since early this morning.

Now, it is very much a frozen winter wonderland here outside of Central Park. I've counted like four snowboarders in the last 10 minutes or so. People are out here with sleds, with cardboard, with containers to get inside of and slide down on.

For the most part, people trying to enjoy and take in the, the weather and taking the snow, but on a more serious note, they really should be careful. it is quite cold out here, very bitterly cold. So, exposure to the elements for a long time can be dangerous.

And of course, there are thousands of sanitation workers that are out on the streets right now trying to keep the streets clear. That is what we talked about with Mayor Zohran Mamdani earlier today, who told us that he had increased the workforce to more than 2,500 workers who are working around the clock, making sure that the streets can get cleared, and he is asking people to try and stay off the roads. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NEW YORK CITY: We had initially had 2,000 DSNY workers for every 12-hour shift, that's now gone up to 2,500 people per 12-hour shift. We are seeing a lot of their work in advance of the storm being critical in helping us meet this moment.

We are frankly seeing too many New Yorkers still out on the roads, that's actually impeding the ability for sanitation to meet this moment. So, the more people stay home, the more work our city workers can actually get done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: A few critical points going into the next several hours and this evening, Jessica, tomorrow public city schools will be closed. Students will be doing remote learning. Also, the libraries and the cultural institutions shutting down because of the weather. So again, people are out here enjoying, but important to remember to do so carefully and just stay out of the elements if you can help it.

DEAN: All right, Gloria Pazmino there in Central Park, thank you so much. I want to go to Ed Lavandera now. Again, he is in Dallas, Texas, where more than a hundred thousand customers are without power.

Ed, when you start seeing ice, that's when things really turn. Obviously, utility companies are trying to handle this storm as best they can and keep people with power and keep the heat on and the lights on. What are you learning?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, the worst of this Arctic storm has blown through after several days of sleet and ice and snow in some parts of North Texas into East Texas, as well as Oklahoma as well, it has really slowed down dramatically.

But you can see behind me here, one of the major highways here in Dallas, just how it is blanketed in this ice and sleet and it will remain like this for some time, because right now the story really is, is these brutally cold temperatures, it is well below freezing, wind chills close to zero and that is some conditions that are expected to last well into Tuesday morning, Jessica, which means everything you see around me is going to take several days before it is able to melt away, and that is going to slow things down in terms of recovery and just getting out of this mess over the next couple of days.

And that's why we are already seeing a slew of business and school closures already slated for early next week, but these temperatures are dangerously cold.

In Austin, officials there announced that one person was found dead from exposure to these cold temperatures. So, even though the worst of the storm system has passed through this area, the story and the dangerously cold temperatures will be a situation to continue to monitor over the next 72 hours.

DEAN: Yes. All right, Ed Lavandera with the latest there from Dallas. Thank you so much for that.

And finally, let's go to Allison Chinchar who is tracking the storm and Allison, the big question now as we talked to Ed there in Dallas where you can see its moved through, Gloria here in New York where it is still hitting everyone, what happens next?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. We've still got a lot out there. I think that's the key thing to note. You look at the radar, you've got a ton of purple that indicates the snow and some of its quite heavy right now across New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, even back through the Ohio Valley, you've got the green indicating the very heavy rain coming down in some spots, and a lot of the pink, especially in the mid-Atlantic, the Carolinas, Georgia. That indicating the sleet, the freezing rain.

But we also have some pink down here. You see that? Down near the Gulf Coast. That's not freezing rain though. That is actually tornado warnings.

[15:25:10]

So we've got several of them right now right here across Alabama, Georgia and even into the panhandle of Florida. The orange color indicating some of those severe thunderstorm warnings.

So you have a very strong line of thunderstorms that is also moving through, because the temperatures down there are in the 60s and 70s. It is incredibly warm air along the southern side. So, you have this Tornado Watch that is in effect until 6:00 P.M. Central Time today as that line continues to move through. On the northern side, again, the big concern here is going to be the frozen precipitation, but also the wind.

So, in areas where the snow is starting to pile up, the ice is starting to accumulate. You have that wind and it blows around some of those tree branches, the weight of the ice and the snow is just simply too much. And so you are still likely to see some tree limbs coming down, some power lines coming down. So, additional power outages are possible as we continue out the rest of the day today.

This system will continue to slide off to the north and east, taking with it the potential for more ice and snow. We've already had three- quarters of an inch of ice fall across portions just around Nashville and Tennessee. Several other states Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky looking at roughly half an inch of ice accumulation and more is expected.

A lot of these areas here could pick up an additional quarter inch of an ice. And for some of these, keep in mind, it is on top of what they have already had, especially across North and South Carolina, where we've already had some ice.

Now, for the rest of the evening, again, the focus is really going to shift along the Eastern Seaboard here. That is where we are going to have some of the biggest impacts, especially up across portions of the northeast and the mid-Atlantic, as the rest of that system really ramps up through the evening hours, but it will finally end by the time we get to early Monday morning.

DEAN: Okay, Allison Chinchar, thank you for that update. We appreciate it.

Just ahead here, we are going to continue to track that massive storm system as it makes its way across the country with more than a million people without power right now.

Also, the number of flight cancellations continues to climb as one major airport remains closed at this hour.

We are also going to look into the questions, the many questions surrounding the death of a 37-year-old Minneapolis man by immigration agents, how video footage and witness statements contradict the account from federal officials, and where that investigation could go in the days and weeks ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:31:52]

DEAN: Today in Minneapolis, questions are mounting as video and eyewitness accounts of that deadly shooting of a resident tell a very different story than what we have been hearing from Trump administration officials.

For the second time this month, federal agents have killed a U.S. citizen who was protesting ICE operations. This is him, 37-year-old, Alex Pretti. He worked with veterans as an ICU nurse.

There are multiple videos of the moments leading up to Pretti's death. We do want to warn you they are disturbing to watch. We are going to show you some of them right now.

The video show Pretti trying to help a woman who agents had shoved down before agents, then wrestled Pretti to the ground. Then we hear multiple gunshots fired, resulting in his death.

Now, the Trump administration is defending the agents' use of force here against Pretti, who was armed, but had a license to carry a firearm and is not seen in any videos reviewed by CNN brandishing that weapon at agents. Here they are.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTI NOEM, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We do know that he came to that scene and impeded a law enforcement operation, which is against federal law. It is a felony.

When he did that, interacting with those agents, when they tried to get him to disengage, 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 and that's how this tragedy unfolded, and we hope we never see it again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: There are very serious questions about whether Pretti actually posed a threat to officers. Video from the scene contradicts Homeland Security's account of the incident, and appear to show officers removing Pretti's handgun from his waist before shooting him, and again, no video account has shown Pretti brandishing any weapon at agents.

Moments ago, top Border Patrol official, Greg Bovino offered no specifics, would not answer when asked about claims Pretti had intent to harm.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOVINO: When someone makes the choice to come into an active law enforcement scene, interfere, obstruct, delay or assault law enforcement and they bring a weapon to do that, that is a -- that is a choice that that individual made.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Bovino could also not cite any evidence that he was brandishing that weapon. Pretti's death reigniting protests in Minneapolis and across the country over the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, with calls for ICE agents to leave that city growing ever louder.

Again, I want to bring in our colleague, CNN's Sara Sidner, who has been on the ground there in Minneapolis for many days now.

Sara, I know you've been talking to a lot of people in that city. What are they telling you?

SIDNER: Look, I think I need to speak very plainly and clearly. If all of the videos that we have seen are the only bits of evidence that are out there for investigators to look at, then DHS is lying. That is how everyone on the ground sees it and anyone who has looked at those videos sees it.

They said that he was brandishing a weapon, that Alex Pretti was brandishing a weapon when he approached the Border Patrol agents.

[15:35:10]

There is not a single video that shows that. The thing he was brandishing, if you will, was a cell phone.

Now, we have gone over the video from several different angles, and here is what you can see for yourself happened in the videos that are available to us. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX PRETTI, ICU NURSE: Today, we remember that freedom is not free --

SIDNER (voice over): This is Alex Pretti doing his duty as a nurse at the Veterans' hospital, saying a final goodbye to a soldier.

Pretti at 37, is now dead, killed by Border Patrol agents. He is the third person shot by federal agents here in less than a month.

CHRIS GRAY, ALEX PRETTI'S NEIGHBOR: He was an ICU nurse. He was a worker like myself. He was part of the fabric of my community.

SIDNER (voice over): He says Pretti was also a volunteer observer documenting what ICE was doing in his city. His death, like Minneapolis resident, Renee Good --

RENEE NICOLE GOOD, MINNEAPOLIS RESIDENT: That's fine dude. I am not mad at you.

SIDNER (voice over): Was caught in chilling clarity on cell phone video from several angles, with several witnesses.

NILSON BARAHO, SHOOTING WITNESS: It wasn't just the physical sound of it. It was like trying to break our spirit, you know?

SIDNER (voice over): A warning: What you are about to see is what Nilson Baraho saw outside the donut shop. This is the clearest angle of the shooting as it happened. That is Alex Pretti recording on his cell phone as Border Patrol agents arrive outside the donut shop. He goes into the street waving cars through.

Now, here is how the Department of Homeland Security described how Pretti approached federal agents.

NOEM: An individual approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a nine-millimeter semiautomatic handgun.

SIDNER (voice over): That's not what video shows. It shows federal agents approach Pretti, all he has in his hand is a cell phone, not a gun.

Then you see him moving one protester away from agents while agents shove another to the ground. As he tries to help the protester they shoved, agents deploy pepper spray. Three wrestle him to the ground. More join in.

From another angle, you see one agent punching him in the face with a canister of pepper spray in his hand. Pretti is on the ground under them. Nothing appears in his hands.

You can see an officer in a gray jacket walk into frame. Seconds later, agent shout, "He's got a gun!" One agent removes a gun from his belt. He steps away from the scene, carrying a firearm seen here in his right hand.

It turns out, state authorities say Pretti has a license to legally carry a gun. But you never see him draw it. Instead, an agent draws his gun while standing above Pretti and fires the first shot.

Pretti survived somehow rising up to his knees, then agents fired at least ten more times. Pretti's body slumps face down in the street, lifeless.

But federal authorities weren't done with their accusations against him.

BOVINO: This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.

SIDNER (voice over): Pretti's neighbor, Chris Gray, says that couldn't be farther from the truth.

GRAY: Everything they say about my neighbors is a lie.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: All right, so you heard there from his neighbor, Chris Gray, who says Pretti was out here not to harm anyone, but to protect his neighbors. He says he was simply out here practicing his First Amendment and his Second Amendment rights, but was killed by agents who were supposed to protect us and allow us to use those rights, whether it be in the streets or in our homes, he ended up being killed by those very agents who are charged with protecting our inalienable rights.

That is what you are hearing from the scene. You can see all the videos from all the different angles yourselves. You decide -- Jessica.

DEAN: That's it, Sara. You can -- you're right. Everyone can see for themselves. The videos are everywhere.

Sara Sidner walking us through all of it. Thank you so much for that reporting.

More than 17,000 flights have been cancelled since Saturday as a fierce winter storm hits two-thirds of the United States. We are going to have more on the major disruptions at some of the busiest airports in the country.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:44:05]

DEAN: Focusing once again on this monster winter storm that's hammering the northeast and the mid-Atlantic right now, forcing Reagan National Airport to shut down in Washington, D.C.

A post on the airport's X page saying: Airlines have cancelled all flights to the airport today. The airport itself remains open for stranded passengers.

According to FlightAware, there are more than 3,100 delays nationally, over 10,000 cancellations and on the roads, the conditions are treacherous.

Throughout much of the country, sleet falling on top of the snow in the Northeast making things even more dangerous.

We are also learning about power outages across the storm zone that have now climbed to more than a million homes and businesses. So, knowing all of that, let's bring in Rafael Romo, who is in Atlanta.

Rafael, I understand many neighborhoods there are coated in ice. That is kind of the story we are seeing throughout the Southern United States. How are things going in the Atlanta region today?

[15:45:01]

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Jessica. Well, here in Atlanta, the most affected areas are located northeast of the metro area. And so, so far, roads are wet but in fair condition here in the downtown area, considering we are getting plenty of rain in the last couple of hours or so. The precipitation from this massive winter storm in the form of snow, ice or rain stretches for over 1,600 miles from the Louisiana Coast up to Maine, and the dangerous conditions it is creating are not over yet. One of the states that had declared a State of Emergency prior to the storm is Louisiana, where officials are now reporting two weather related deaths in Caddo Parish, where Shreveport is located.

The Louisiana Department of Health confirmed two men died of hypothermia there, and the parish coroner has confirmed both deaths were storm related.

The damaging ice accumulation and extreme cold has also had a severe impact on the region's power grid. A widespread power outage in the Nashville Metropolitan Area could last for days, Jessica, according to the Nashville Electrical Service, the local power utility.

In a statement, NES said crews have been operating in continuous rotations and they will remain on extended 14-to-16-hour shifts to ensure they can continue responding to outages quickly with the help of additional workers.

By 2:00 P.M. Eastern Time this afternoon, power outages surpassed one million across the South, according to Power Outage U.S., there nearly 338,000 customers without power in Tennessee, almost additional 163,,000 in Mississippi and an additional 137,000 in Louisiana.

Officials in Southern Louisiana have opened multiple warming centers and plan to keep them open, as frigid temperatures are expected to continue to affect the area.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RACHEL GODEAUX, LAFAYETTE CONSOLIDATED GOVERNMENT'S CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER: Our main concern is making sure that we have the shelter set up to where, you know, people are not looking for alternative places to stay, causing additional fire or a burden on the public safety resources.

So, by having everybody here, we are able to provide a hot meal, we are able to provide those services here on site without having to respond elsewhere in the community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: Jessica, many school districts across the affected region have either cancelled classes or are moving to remote learning, as is the case in New York City. The Houston Independent School District announced all schools and facilities will be closed on Monday.

Here in the Atlanta Metro Area, schools in Gwinnett and Fulton Counties, as well as the City Schools of Decatur will hold classes remotely, while DeKalb County will cancel classes Monday, according to updates on their sites.

Jessica, now back to you.

DEAN: All right, Rafael Romo, thanks so much for that.

And still to come here, we are going to go back to Minneapolis, where state investigators are getting their first look at the scene where a 37-year-old U.S. citizen was shot and killed by federal agents this weekend.

We will be right back.

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[15:52:45]

DEAN: Two-thirds of the country now getting hit by this brutal winter storm. It is bringing snow, sleet, ice. We are joined by the mayors of two cities that are especially getting hit hard this go round.

Freddie O'Connell, mayor of Nashville, Tennessee, and Cara Spencer, mayor of St. Louis, Missouri. Good to have both of you here. Thank you so much.

Mayor O'Connell, let's start first with you. Just describe what the situation is like and how the response is going.

MAYOR FREDDIE O'CONNELL, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE: Yes, Jessica, thank you and everything that you and Rafael were just discussing is happening in Nashville.

We started with a few gentle inches of snow that seemed manageable, but overnight woke up to the entire city being covered in a glaze of ice and that's really when the difficulty starts.

So, we continue to have snowplows out across the city. We have more than 200,000 NES customers without power right now, so our crews there also working around the clock to try to get power restored to as many people.

We just announced an expansion of emergency warming shelters that include fire stations and police precincts.

And so, we are trying to encourage Nashvillians to stay safe and shelter in place as much as they can, but also trying to offer resources because we know how challenging this is going to be.

After the ice stopped, we now are going to have wind gusts and temperatures drop to critically low periods. So, this really is a perfect winter storm that is challenging to deal with.

DEAN: Yes, there are just so many components to it.

Mayor Spencer, I would imagine things are similar in St. Louis. Are you guys getting ice as well?

MAYOR CARA SPENCER, ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI: We have not gotten any ice, but as of just now, we are looking at about ten inches of snow citywide and historically low temperatures. We are expected to see temperatures go in the negative-18 as far as wind chill tonight.

DEAN: Wow! SPENCER: And you know, this comes on the heels of a massive tornado we had earlier this spring. So, we've got a ton of folks that are already displaced, already in vulnerable housing and we are doing everything we can to not only provide shelter, but to get those folks to the shelter safely.

DEAN: Yes, that's a lot to deal with.

And, Mayor O'Connell, we've also learned Tennessee has more power outages right now than any other state. It is more than 300,000. Davidson County, which is where Nashville is has the bulk of those. So, walk us through the power outages -- how you're dealing with that.

[15:55:02]

O'CONNELL: Yes, and I think the difference is what you just heard. We -- it is the ice that has really been the crippling effect here. Waking up to that much ice puts weight on every single branch of every single tree. It is on power lines.

And so waking up this morning, you could just hear the branches snapping off of trees, in some cases right outside our window, in our alley, we had an enormous tree just fall down and block it. And so roadways are blocked, which also disrupts the ability for crews to get to places, whether they are snowplows or power crews. And then the trees are bringing down the power lines and utility poles.

And so we do have a lot of crews coming in. We are so fortunate that our emergency responders and utility workers, who very often serve other communities in times of crisis, and we are happy to send them elsewhere, are now being joined by some other crews coming in from elsewhere and we need that additional capacity.

Earlier this morning, I actually declared a local state of emergency for Nashville to make sure that we have all the resources we are going to need to recover over the next few days, because we are not even through the worst of it yet in terms of the weather. We are expecting those very, very low temperatures arriving are going to make things increasingly difficult, especially with those large numbers of power outages.

DEAN: Yes, I remember growing up when there was an ice storm, when those crews would come, especially the ones from out-of-state, when they would finally get there, everyone was so grateful. It was like heroes coming to get the power back on.

Mayor Spencer, I know you mentioned that you're just dealing with this extreme cold and I think sometimes in these events, we can talk about warming shelters and making sure people get out. But this is really serious stuff. I mean, you're dealing with life-threatening temperatures.

SPENCER: That's exactly right, and as I mentioned, we have thousands of residents who are in compromised housing as a result of a massive -- the nation's largest tornado since Joplin just earlier last year. And so, as you mentioned, this is life-threatening for everyone, but especially folks who are still dealing without roofs, without windows.

And so, you know, our priority is really to keep folks safe. And that's exactly what we are doing. We are clearing out roads. We are making sure that our roads are passable, but getting folks into shelter space. We've opened an unprecedented number of shelters. We've got folks in hotels, and we are doing everything we can to keep them indoors.

DEAN: Keep indoors, keep warm. Mayors Freddie O'Connell and Cara Spencer, our thanks to both of you. I know you're both very busy right now. Good luck. We hope everyone stays safe. Thank you.

SPENCER: Thank you.

O'CONNELL: Thanks, Jessica.

DEAN: Still to come, we are going to go back to Minneapolis.

We are also following this monster winter blast that's moving up the East Coast and the big problems it is leaving in its wake with that freezing rain and dramatic snowfall.

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