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Anger And Outrage Rising In Minnesota; Winter Snow Brings Ice, Snow From Gulf Coast To Northeast; Winter Storm Sets Off Travel Nightmare; Multiple DHS Officials Furious Over Handling Of Shooting; FED Officials Won't Answer Key Questions About Agent's Killing Of MN Man; Video, Witnesses Shed New Light On Moments Before Agents Shoot Pretti; Minneapolis Shooting Tension, Outrage Spreads Nationwide. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired January 25, 2026 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:32]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And you're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kaitlan Collins in New York.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Anderson Cooper in Minneapolis.
COLLINS: We're following two major stories tonight. First, we're tracking live developments as a monster storm system is crippling most of the United States, knocking out power for at least one million customers this evening. With roads and highways both covered in ice and heavy snow, travel is nearly impossible in some areas.
We have the latest on how states are struggling to keep up, and how long this bitter cold is going to last.
COOPER: And there is growing anger and outrage here in Minnesota after another U.S. citizen shot and killed by federal immigration officers early Saturday morning. The death of ICU nurse Alex Pretti and the false narrative immediately spun by top Homeland Security officials is fueling new protests and calls for ICE and Border Patrol to get out of the state.
Now, earlier, I spoke to Minneapolis' police chief about the situation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF BRIAN O'HARA, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE DEPARTMENT: Greater concern is, you know, people should be able to have an expectation that the federal government can enforce federal immigration law without these, you know, poor tactics and really unconstitutional practices.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: And people certainly here do not have that expectation. Now, many of them, people are turning out here today remembering Alex Pretti with a growing memorial of flowers and candles. We've been seeing crowds there all throughout the day, beginning early this morning. Many residents expressing a range of emotions, deep sadness, frustration, anger. Meantime, claims from the Trump administration about exactly what happened are either contradicted by numerous video images or unsupported by any evidence that officials have been able to present so far. And frankly, they have not presented much evidence so far.
I walked with some protesters talking to them about what they are seeing and feeling earlier.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: -- out today?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to be with the community. It's so moving. It's beautiful to be a part of this. And I'm just so proud to be a part of this community, and I just want to be here in support people who can't --
COOPER: Does it make you feel better to be with others in this?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I think it's time to stop living on social media. Stop -- just I think it's time to be here. It's time to show up.
COOPER: Well, thank you. I appreciate it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
COOPER: You hear that a lot from people here. This idea of community. Everybody I have talked to today talks about that. They feel the community rising up. They feel the community voicing, and they feel that there's power in that community.
Excuse me. I'm with the CNN. Can I ask you some questions?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How you doing?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
COOPER: OK. Hey.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Hi.
COOPER: My name is Anderson.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
COOPER: OK. So why did you come out today?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because what's happening here is completely wrong. It's completely wrong. And it's -- we couldn't stomach ourselves if we stayed home.
COOPER: Yes. Do you feel -- does it help to come out and be with others? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, yes. It -- you know that you're not alone,
and you know that other people are as mad as you are and are willing to fight. Being with people makes a huge difference.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: There's a crowd of several hundred people walking through downtown Minneapolis earlier today,
CNN senior crime and justice correspondent Shimon Prokupecz. He joins me now.
Shimon, I know you've been talking with local law enforcement, other members of the community. What are you hearing from them? You were at the vigil on the site, where the killing took place Saturday morning around 9:00 a.m.
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: There is a lot of frustration, Anderson, over the fact that the federal government could see things one way, and the local government and the police and this sort of -- the two law enforcement agencies here on the local side and on the federal side.
You know, I don't know that we have ever had a situation like this before in our history where you are hearing from the police chief who spoke to you, who is out there saying that the federal government and those authorities that are here on the ground are not doing what they're supposed to do.
[19:05:08]
Their tactics are not great. How they're behaving is really concerning. And there are other law enforcement officials, of course, that are saying all of this and that in many ways is driving this community I think right now to certainly stay peaceful. And this is what we're seeing behind us here. You see, there's a group of people there who are singing and just trying to keep the calm, trying to keep the peace.
And that's what we have been seeing here. People have been coming here. I mean, it's zero degrees right now here with a feel of minus three. And so many people are still out here laying flowers, lighting candles. This community is reeling. There is so much pain, but there is also fear. But they are doing whatever they can at this moment to keep things together, to voice their outrage in a way that is through peace and that is through unity.
I want to just quickly, Anderson, take you out here. It's a little icy so, David, be careful. So all day we've been watching the Minneapolis Police here. I think this is significant, Anderson, because they're here. They're part of this community. They have been here. We have not seen any kind of fights or arguments between any of the people out here, and the Minneapolis Police. At times, you know, just a little while ago, things did sort of heat up and the people here who have been gathering at the vigil, they wanted to come into the street. And so what we saw was the Minneapolis Police clear this area. They've
closed the street down and they've de-escalated. Something that local police is very well trained, and we have certainly seen from the Minneapolis Police and have not seen from the federal government here that is just escalating the situation. I spoke to a woman earlier here. She said she is tired. She is tired of this and she wants things to calm down. And they want the federal authorities to leave.
COOPER: Yes. Shimon, appreciate that.
We're going to be looking very closely at the multiple videos that are now out there, and I should point out the video that Mr. Pretti himself was shooting, he was holding his camera, though the Homeland Security officials, Secretary Noem indicated, seemed to indicate that he was actually holding his gun approaching officers, he wasn't. He was holding his camera. That camera, we believe, is in the possession of federal authorities. We have not seen any video from that camera.
Obviously, Kaitlan, that's going to be an important piece of evidence in whatever investigation there may be.
COLLINS: Yes. And it also stood out this morning in all of those interviews of top administration officials from Border Patrol, from the Department of Homeland Security, no one repeated or backed up what Kristi Noem said yesterday, accusing him of brandishing his weapon at these agents.
Anderson, obviously, we'll continue to check back in with you in Minneapolis as we're following those memorials that are happening there tonight.
And also, this comes as a huge portion of the United States is also dealing with a brutal and dangerous winter storm this evening. There's heavy snow that is pounding states across the Midwest and the northeast. We heard from the Connecticut governor, Ned Lamont. He said the snow is coming so fast the plows actually can't move it fast enough to keep up.
A lot of cities along the I-95 corridor have been bracing for record totals this weekend, and across the south, the problem there is ice that is being described as catastrophic in some areas.
Here's just a sense of what's happening in Mississippi.
Those parts of Mississippi, also South Carolina, Louisiana, seeing up to an inch of ice. It's been downing power lines and leaving a lot of people in the dark tonight. When it comes to outages, though, we've seen the most in Tennessee. More than 300,000 customers losing power this evening. It's not clear when they're going to get it back.
CNN's Derek Van Dam has been tracking this storm out of Louisville, Kentucky.
Derek, what have you been seeing there? As you know, we're just seeing people grapple with this same storm, just in very different ways in different states. DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: A massive, very dynamic storm, too,
Kaitlan. So even though the precipitation, the snow and the sleet that pounded this state of Kentucky has come to an end, we still have a full-fledged ice storm across the southern Appalachians into northeast Georgia, and a snowstorm ongoing across New England and parts of the East Coast. The storm continues to evolve, but there's really no escaping it.
If you live east of the Rockies, there is basically every single state impacted by an ice cold or winter storm alert, east of the Rockies, and that's just saying the expanse of how large this storm system actually is. So here in Louisville and the broader Kentucky state, there was kind of a tale of two different weather patterns that came through here. We had a mixture of light, fluffy snow here in Louisville, but also some sleet that kept the snowfall totals down. The heaviest snowfall was just to our north in Indiana, where they had over a foot.
[19:10:04]
But there was a crippling ice storm that took place from the lower Mississippi valley through Tennessee and into southern Kentucky as well as some of the images coming out of that area are just astounding with a half an inch of ice.
I learned this. With a half an inch of ice accretion on branches that adds an additional roughly 7,000 pounds to a 30-foot tree. So that's why we're seeing these tree limbs tumble. And when they're next to power lines, we know what that does. It takes out the power. So in the state of Kentucky right now, there's 60,000 customers without power. There's over 100 warming shelters that are in place.
And this is just part of the bigger story here, because there is what is called a flash freeze that is on -- that is incoming. And we can feel the temperatures dropping as we speak, almost like the air is crystallizing right before us as we put up our bright television lights for our cameras. We can almost see it. This flash freeze will rapidly drop the temperature across some of the hardest hit areas from this winter storm.
So any of that frozen precipitation and the impacts from that will be locked in place for the next several days. Because guess what? The mercury in the thermometer, it's not going to rise above the freezing mark for many of the hardest hit locations. So that means this is going to prolong the impacts of this storm and prolong the agony of this massive, crippling winter storm -- Kaitlan.
COLLINS: How do officials deal with that? You know, because obviously in New York, for example, even we're seeing a ton of snow tonight. But if they can't really clear that or the temperatures are only going to drop as the night goes on, what does that look like for officials?
VAN DAM: Well, when they salt the roadways, that's only effective to a certain temperature, right? 14, 15 degrees. But if it gets colder than that with this flash freeze I'm talking about, they have to start mixing in other substances with brine. And that is a little bit more effective at colder temperatures. But at some stage there's just too much of this type of precipitation that covers the ground, and it just makes it so challenging for those road crews to get out there, regardless of how they pretreated, regardless of how they prepared.
My advice to people here is check on your loved ones. Check on the elderly, especially those who have been impacted by power outages because without the ability to heat your home, you could be in serious trouble.
COLLINS: Yes, it's a scary prospect. Derek Van Dam, thank you for that. We're going to continue to check back in with you as we're watching what this looks like with temperatures dropping tonight.
And I should note, this has been the worst travel, the worst day for air travel in years. There have been more than 17,000 flights canceled alone. We're tracking how airlines are hoping to get back on schedule this evening. And also typically a group that supports this administration is now criticizing comments made by people like the FBI director when it comes to the fatal shooting by immigration agents of Alex Pretti. We have more updates now and throughout the hour.
You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:17:38]
COLLINS: Tonight, this winter storm is stretching over the entire East Coast, dumping heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain. The Carolinas have seen a lot of snow and ice as the storm has moved up the Eastern Seaboard this evening, and the North Carolina governor, Josh Stein, has been warning residents they are not out of the woods yet.
That's where CNN's Dianne Gallagher joins us live, where she's in Charlotte on the ground.
And, Dianne, I know officials have been warning that people could be without power for days. What are you seeing on the ground there tonight?
DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And the reason why they say that we could be without power for days is honestly, and you can see we're trying to clean this up right now, it's freezing rain that fell within the past two hours here. We had some sleet and some crunchy snow that fell in the morning. And I think a lot of people thought they were in the clear. But late this evening we started getting freezing rain.
And I mean, you can see it's built up very quickly here. And the concern from the governor and others is that, look, I'm not making any impact on this. It's frozen solid right now as things melt. And you see there's still cars that are on the road at the moment. They've been melting this as it melts and refreezes.
We could be seeing a situation like we have in states like Mississippi and Tennessee, where hundreds of thousands of people in just those two states alone are without power right now. We have seen dozens and dozens of power poles that have snapped. Entire communities are just sort of in a glaze of ice in those states at this point. Scenes you don't see in the Deep South.
And that was the warning the entire time from state officials here in the Carolinas, that the fear is this freezing rain that has come as we saw things melt and now refreezing again with prolonged cold temperatures for days now and potential high winds are basically a perfect recipe for not just frightening and dangerous travel, but also power outages.
I spoke with Duke Energy. They have 18,000 workers in the Carolinas alone who are on standby staging right now, just in case we do have widespread power outages, but they can't get rolling until the roads are safe enough to drive. And again, you can see right now this stuff right here will freeze over. We can show you exactly what that's going to look like as it's melted and refrozen over this crate here.
So once it can get rolling, they can help. But they said it could potentially be days before that happens, Kaitlan. The governor warning people to not let their guard down just yet, even though they may feel like it's over.
[19:20:04]
COLLINS: Yes. And it looks obviously pretty empty behind you, Dianne. But I understand all of this, the conditions that you've just talked about there, it didn't stop. You know, this Walk for Peace that the monks are doing today as they were leaving Raleigh, what did you see there?
GALLAGHER: You know, they are on day 92 of their Walk for Peace. They've been in North Carolina for a little while now. We saw them when they came into Charlotte, and they set out in these icy conditions in Raleigh this morning, covered with snow and ice, and they sort of traded their bare feet and their robes for ponchos and boots. They were still greeted by people who wanted to show support along the way, showing up in their parkas, still giving them flowers and warm food.
They have finished for the night. They're resting here, but do say they plan to get up in the morning and keep walking even in these icy conditions, with their furry companion, Aloka the Peace Dog.
COLLINS: Yes, it's a nice sight to see, especially given all the headlines today.
Diane Gallagher, thank you for that. We'll check in with you on the ground.
And I should note, this winter storm that we're seeing is ruining travel plans all across the country. We've seen over 11,000 flights canceled just today alone. Thousands more have already been canceled for tomorrow. And just a few moments ago, we learned that this storm has actually driven the highest number of U.S. flight cancellations that we have seen since the pandemic.
CNN's Randi Kaye is tracking all the latest on this front from the Newark International Airport.
And, Randi, what are you, I mean, I imagine there's travelers there who are unhappy tonight, but have to understand, you know, why these cancellations are happening.
RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kaitlan, we've seen about three travelers here today. I mean, we basically have the whole airport to ourselves. It's really an incredible scene here. I spoke with the Port Authority, which runs Newark Airport, and they told me that 87 percent of the flights here at this airport, in and out of the airport, have been canceled today.
And we are seeing widespread disruptions, not just here at Newark, but more than 80 percent of the flights have been canceled at JFK, at LaGuardia, and Philadelphia, 90 percent canceled at Reagan National in D.C. So just take a look at the flight board here. You can see it really tells the story. Most of these flights have been canceled. There's a few that still say on time. 8:45 to Cleveland. There's an 8:00 p.m. to Grand Rapids. I see there's an 8:45 to London.
Whether or not those are going to go, we don't know. Nobody can tell us here because they're just not sure. They just might not be ready to cancel them just yet. But as we arrived to the airport today, just take a look at some of this video we pulled in.
And Kaitlan, you know what it's like. You get to an airport, you have to jockey for a place to unload, get your luggage out. We were the only ones at departures. The only car that actually pulled up to departures. And I spoke with a couple that had just gotten off a cruise, and they were hoping to get home to Arizona. They were checking the flight board. Their flight was canceled. They're hoping to get home tomorrow.
They have to spend the night in the airport because the hotels that do have rooms are too far away and the Ubers aren't running. This is what they told me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: and what is your plan if you can't get out?
TIM DIGGS, FLIGHT CANCELLED: Just wait and wait here in the airport because nowhere else to go. We can't get any Ubers. We can't find any hotels. This is the warmest place we've got, and this is the coldest I've ever been.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: And the conditions are pretty rough out there. I spoke with a pilot earlier who had just flown in from Fort Myers. He was hoping to get to Chicago. He said the flight coming in wasn't too bad, but just taxiing to the gate he described it as, quote, "hairy." So there's a good reason why they've grounded so many of these planes and why it may take a while for these airlines to get back up and running -- Kaitlan.
COLLINS: Yes, a bit of a struggle there.
Randi Kaye, thank you so much for that. We'll check back in with you.
And just ahead tonight, we're also going to go back to the ground in Minneapolis, where the fatal shooting by immigration agents of Alex Pretti has sparked serious concerns even within the Department of Homeland Security. Despite what you've heard from their chief, we have new details tonight on frustration and questions inside the department over Secretary Noem's defense of those agents and their actions. That's just ahead.
You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:28:11]
COLLINS: And we're back with more on the backlash after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by immigration agents in Minneapolis as videos are contradicting the account that is coming from the federal government tonight. There's mourners that are paying respects to the ICU nurse on the ground in Minneapolis, as there's growing criticism coming from inside the Department of Homeland Security, where multiple DHS officials tell my colleague, CNN's Priscilla Alvarez, they're furious with how the agency and Secretary Kristi Noem is handling the shooting.
Some of those sentiments have been fueled by what we heard from Secretary Noem earlier, and a swift defense of the federal officers involved, and also her claims about Pretti himself.
Priscilla joins me now.
And, Priscilla, what are you hearing exactly from these officials? What did they make of what they're hearing from Secretary Noem?
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kaitlan, as they've had more time to absorb the videos that have been circulating on social media and that the American public has also been looking at and dissecting, they have grown more frustrated and more concerned not only about the shooting incident, but also the public response by the Department of Homeland Security.
These are officials who are keenly aware that they risk even more reputational harm, which affects them in their operations and could also have long term consequences that they are going to have to wrestle with in the years to come.
Now, of course, what has -- this all stemmed really from what they've seen online and what they've heard from the Trump administration. And in my conversations, they simply can't square, just as many other people have observed this can't, what happened in that shooting incident and what the Department of Homeland Security secretary has been saying.
As you mentioned, Kaitlan, she swiftly defended the agent yesterday and this morning did much of the same. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTI NOEM, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: He came to that scene and impeded a law enforcement operation, which is against federal law. It's a felony. When he did that, interacting with those agents, when they tried to get him to disengage, he became aggressive and resisted them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[19:30:19]
ALVAREZ: Now she's also said that the intent here was to massacre law enforcement, that he was brandishing a weapon and in the videos that have been made public, none of that appears to be true and that is what Homeland Security officials are wrestling with.
And their concern is that ultimately, the Secretary is doing a disservice to the department. In fact, one Homeland Security official told me the following, "The department needs a law enforcement leader, not a sycophant."
Now, in addition to that, I've heard that some Border Patrol agents who are on the ground in Minneapolis are starting to become unconvinced that this is a productive use of time and that is doing operations there, given the tenuous situations that they are finding themselves in.
So, certainly, Kaitlan, there are fractures within the Department of Homeland Security over this incident and the way the Trump administration has handled it so far.
COLLINS: Yes, Priscilla Alvarez, thank you for that reporting.
Anderson is back on the ground in Minneapolis. And, Anderson, I think just given Priscilla's reporting, it also stands out that we heard from the Border Patrol official in charge earlier, saying all of those agents that you see in that video, they are still on the job. They just have been reassigned to other scenes, he said, out of concern for their safety.
COOPER: And we have no update on any aspect of this investigation, and as you know, state officials are not part of this investigation. And according to state officials, they weren't allowed to the crime scene to do any kind of investigation or examination on their own, even though they had a search warrant signed by a judge.
So, there's a lot of questions about what sort of investigation -- actually who are they actually investigating and what are they investigating if they are and there is certainly a lot of suspicion by people who are out in the streets who just do not believe, certainly what Secretary Noem has said or Greg Bovino, who essentially echoed her in these allegations accusing this man of essentially being a domestic terrorist.
Minneapolis Police officers are feeling certainly unsettled at times. I spoke to the city's Chief of Police earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIAN O'HARA, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE DEPARTMENT CHIEF: It looks very untrained. It looks unprofessional. It looks very chaotic. It doesn't look like there is clear teamwork tactically to achieve the same objective.
And it's just -- it is absolutely not how we train law enforcement in Minnesota. And I think the greater issue, the greater concern is, you know, people should be able to have an expectation that the federal government can enforce federal immigration law without these, you know, poor tactics and really unconstitutional practices.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, former FBI Special Agent Daniel Brunner joins us now.
Daniel, appreciate you being with us. We just heard from the Minneapolis' chief of police earlier who sounded really appalled by the chaos of the scene, the tactics that all of us have seen in these videos by these Border Patrol agents, in this case, ICE in other cases. Do you agree with his assessment?
DANIEL BRUNNER, RETIRED FBI SPECIAL AGENT: I agree, we've discussed this before and the incident two weeks ago and previous incidents.
Federal officers, CBP, FBI, they're not trained in mass situations, mass protests, rioting. So, this is a new situation for them. The CBP -- Border Patrol, ICE -- they're trained in dealing with the border. They're dealing with immigrants that are coming across the border. They're not dealing with U.S. citizens that may be in the scene, maybe on the sidewalk, maybe filming. This is all new.
This is not what they've trained for. This is not what they've prepared for. So, this lack of training, this lack of preparation and just thrusting these agents into situations where they're not prepared for is just a recipe for disaster and we are going to have more situations, conflicts if something doesn't get remedied.
COOPER: You've seen video of the shooting from several angles. I want to show these videos from different angles.
What is your take on this DHS narrative that Alex Pretti was killed essentially in self-defense? That he was coming at them aggressively when initially we were told he, you know, he approached them with a gun.
We now know from the video the gun was behind his back was removed by one -- that's one of the Border Patrol officers actually removing the gun. Whether the -- we don't know whether the other people in this scrum on top of him were aware the gun had been removed. What do you make of that DHS narrative that we've heard so far?
[19:35:02] BRUNNER: Well, from the beginning, the initial narrative that came out within minutes of the shooting was that he had brandished the weapon, and within minutes that was debunked.
Every step of the way, the administration has been coming out and saying different things that has moved the pin or moved the needle in a different direction, and it just doesn't match up with what we're seeing. They want us to not believe our own eyes, and we are seeing this right here.
This scrum, that situation occurred and they removed the gun from Mr. Pretti back. The important part is the deadly force policy, which goes back to the previous shooting two weeks ago. If the officers felt that there was an active threat against them or other people, a threat of life or bodily injury to others, they are authorized to use deadly force.
If they don't see that they cannot shoot, they should not be shooting, and they continue with less than lethal. What appears to be the agent in the green shirt which who fired the first round, he was right there as the weapon was removed from Mr. Pretti's small back, and then he shifted to his left. And then the first round goes directly into Mr. Pretti's back. Then more shots are fired.
Each one of those rounds, rounds one through ten, have to be accounted for. They have to be able to articulated that there was a viable, articulable threat that they saw, that they had to use deadly force. They had to come back from using less than lethal and if they can't do that, including the secondary officers that fired, you cannot fire because another officer is firing those officers as well need to see that was the threat and that's why they were using deadly force, at which point, unless they can do that, and which appears to be on the video, if they can't prove that, if they can't articulate there was an active threat to someone, to the agent or others present, then these rounds are all bad rounds.
And for me, it was training and discipline. And more importantly, the officer in the green shirt pulled his weapon while he was still actively engaging the person. And that's instilled in us in training, you don't ever engage actively while you have your gun out. It's just not good because you could have a sympathetic discharge and a disaster could happen.
COOPER: Yes, I mean, some of the later shots and again, these all happened within a matter of seconds. But if there's ten shots, some of the later shots were two officers firing and it seemed to be from a little bit of a distance and Mr. Pretti was already motionless on the ground.
BRUNNER: So yes. So, it appears every other agent has to be able to articulate the shot. If I'm with another agent and he fires, I can't just begin firing because that agent is shooting. I have to see whatever that threat that they're firing for, I have to see that threat, too, whether it be the individual has a second gun or that individual has obtained one of the officer's weapons. That has to be articulated. Every other agent that fired has to be able to articulate that there was a threat. You cannot fire just because the agent beside you, you know, is starting to shoot, and it creates more chaos and you have to be able to articulate the threat that the individual -- based on what we're seeing, Mr. Pretti gun was removed and the first officer that fired was literally right over that situation when that gun was removed and he was the one that fired the first round, which appears to be into Mr. Pretti's back, at which point the rest of the chaos ensued.
COOPER: Retired FBI agent Daniel Brunner, I appreciate your expertise. Thank you very much.
We also have new video, oh you're going to stay -- he is actually going to stay with us because we also have new video just in to CNN that sheds light on the moments before the shooting of Mr. Pretti.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:43:38]
COOPER: Welcome back.
We have breaking news. We are just now getting new video taken before Alex Pretti was shot by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis. I want to get right to that video.
CNN senior correspondent, Josh Campbell joins me now. So, Josh, let's talk -- show the video and talk it through. What does this new video show us?
JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is important because so far, we've seen different angles of the actual shooting itself. But what were about to see, and as this plays all kind of walk you through what we're seeing.
But to set this up, this was in the moments before this actually took place. People were wondering, well, why were ICE agents or CBP agents there to begin with? The department says that they were engaged in a targeted enforcement operation.
Based on what we're hearing from witnesses who took some of these videos, as well as in court filings, they're saying that these agents appeared to be trying to follow someone into a nearby store that may have locked the door, but then this crowd started to gather around.
You're seeing some of the people there around in the video that were showing you. And according to one witness, the agents then turned their attention toward the members of the crowd, and they're yelling at the agents, they're blowing whistles.
As you can look off to the right of your screen, where we quickly zoom in. That is Alex Pretti there off to your right. So, he was there on the scene, according to some of these witnesses, at one point, one of the witnesses said that he was trying to direct traffic and kind of get people around what was taking place. It appears the agents were there on the ground, taking someone unrelated into custody.
[19:45:04]
But well show you the second video. This is from another vantage point. Again, this is all before the fatal shot actually happens and you actually can see him being confronted by these two agents. One of them pushes his torso and is pushing him off the street, away from whatever is taking place there as he is holding up his phone, filming all of this.
And it's important to keep in mind against the backdrop of what we've heard from Secretary Kristi Noem as well as Greg Bovino saying that he was presenting a threat, that he was there trying to assault and, in Bovino's word "massacre agents," no indication by the body language of anyone there that this is violence, a riot that is occurring, but it appears they're trying to, you know, push him back from the street.
But this is critical context because the agent pushing him is then later seen near the scene of the actual shooting, and one of the agents standing nearby if people remember the video where he's confronted by the agents, he is pepper sprayed, he is then tackled to the ground. That agent appeared to be in that scrum.
Why does all of this matter? It matters not only because it appears to dispel this notion that this was some violent riot that was underway, but also, you know, there's a question long that we've had about the tactics of these agents, and it appears from this video that the agents who were then later at the scene at least had had some type of previous contact with him.
And so there is a question based on a lot of the -- you know, the aggressiveness we've seen at times by these agents, was this someone that was known to them, and then they finally they just got fed up and said, we are going to take this person, you know, into custody, particularly after there was that moment where agents come and shove a woman to the ground and then witnesses say, Pretti put his body between that woman and one of the agents and as you're seeing on your screen right there, this is when these all just kicks off.
And so, this is just critical new insight. It wasn't -- it didn't appear that he was a fresh face to these agents whenever this was happening, there was some interaction that occurred before, Anderson. But again, the critical takeaway here, no indication that he had presented any type of weapon, no indication they actually knew that he had a firearm legally on him at the time, according to state officials.
And so, big questions that continue about why did officers decide to open fire, particularly based on that CNN analysis that appears to show one agent had disarmed him about a second before one of the other agents shot -- Anderson.
COOPER: Yes, Josh Campbell with that new video. Josh, thanks very much. I want to bring back in former FBI special agent Daniel Brunner. Daniel, does anything stand out to you in this new angle that we are seeing?
BRUNNER: No, one of the important things is, I have no problem with what the officers did before the scene. Mr. Pretti, he's got his freedom to videotape. He should have his freedom to be in the area. But the agents were controlling the scene. So, you had the perimeter team. I've been in countless arrests like this.
Having the agents, and Mr. Pretti was on the street. He was getting near closer to the arrest situation and I have no problem with them pushing the perimeter back, getting him back on the sidewalk. Those are all fine, using less than lethal, using your hands, using if it needs to escalate is clearly what they did. They escalated slowly, pushing back, asking him to do. Mr. Pretti was not cooperative in getting pushed back and using these less than lethal tactics to control the scene, to make sure that everything is okay, is fine. Those are acceptable escalations to control the perimeter and make sure that there isn't a threat to the arrest team that is handcuffing the subject.
Where it goes bad is when the officers continue to escalate the situation. Mr. Pretti had his back to the agents when he was assisting the woman on the ground. They were grabbing the back of his jacket to pull him off of her. Mr. Pretti posed no threat to those agents when they were pulling him off of her, and then they continue to escalate, and at which point, using deadly force was not authorized because they had removed the weapon off of Mr. Pretti.
They presented a threat where, again, hopefully an investigation would find that. But there doesn't seem to be any cooperation with the state and locals, and that's tantamount to any shooting investigation, is you have to have cooperation between the federal authorities and the state and locals, and we just don't see that here.
COOPER: Yes, Daniel Brunner, I appreciate it. Josh Campbell as well, thanks very much.
Straight ahead, we're going to have more from here. The legal showdown erupts as state and federal officials battle for control of the Minneapolis shooting investigation and questions over evidence, access and transparency are certainly center stage here.
You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
We'll be right back.
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COLLINS: There is a lot of tension and outrage tonight over the fatal shooting of another U.S. citizen on the ground in Minnesota. It's been spreading nationwide because Alex Pretti was an ICU nurse. CNN video shows that he was documenting what Border Patrol officers were doing on the ground before he was eventually gunned down on the streets.
Our CNN senior political commentator, Van Jones, joins me now. And Van, I just -- as you've been watching these videos over the last, you know, 36 hours play out of what happened to him tonight. And also, what you've heard from our nation's top government officials, what's going through your mind tonight?
VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think it's a tragedy. Any of us could have been in that situation. Many times, some things happening, and, you know, you want to pay attention.
Obviously, the problem you have now is the government lying about what happened in such a blatant way. The whole world can see that what the government is saying happened and what actually happened are not related.
So, now you're in kind of, 1984 territory. The reason that's so dangerous is because what does it say to other ICE officers who might also be aggressive? If you have bad selection, which it seems like you've got bad selection for a lot of these ICE officers, bad training, a bad assignment, bad oversight, and now no ability that looks like a green light that looks like open season.
This is not against ICE agents. It's not against law enforcement. It is just a human fact that any human system without adequate checks and balances and accountability will tend toward corruption and abuse. That's why you have meat inspectors. Not because you hate the butchers, because, you know, if nobody's going to have oversight, things are going to go wrong. You have building inspectors not because you hate construction workers or architects, but, you know, if there's nobody overlooking this, buildings will fall down.
What you have now is the government saying, we will defend you no matter what you do.
You can shoot someone in the back on the ground ten times, and the President of United states and his appointees will come out and defend you to the hilt, no matter what the evidence says, no matter what common sense says, no matter what training says, no matter what the law says, you will have the full support of the United States government. That is the most dangerous thing you can say to literally anyone, let alone these people who seem to have been picked based on, you know, their willingness to pick up a $50,000.00 check.
I've talked to a lot of people in law enforcement and in the military, they say the kind of people who are saying yes to these opportunities are so-called power trippers. They're not the guys that would have made it in a police academy or in the military. There are a lot of power trippers who are jumping on this opportunity and they're acting like it.
So, now you have a very dangerous brew, not just for undocumented people, but for American citizens, as you see. And that's why people are heartbroken across the country. The government should be able to say to its agents, look, you have to enforce the law, but you have to follow the law as well and that's what's not happening here. [19:55:12]
COLLINS: And I mean, Stephen Miller almost immediately was calling him a domestic terrorist. He said he was an assassin who was trying to murder federal agents. Even Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol Chief who's kind of become the face of the Border Patrol effort, what he said yesterday versus what he said today was markedly different. I want you, Van, just to listen to these two moments from him.'
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GREGORY BOVINO, U.S. BORDER PATROL SECTOR CHIEF OF THE EL CENTRO SECTOR IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: During this operation, an individual approached U.S. Border Patrol agents with a nine-millimeter semi- automatic handgun.
The investigation is going to uncover all those facts. Things like how many shots were fired? Where were the weapons located? All of those facts are going to come out in the investigation.
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COLLINS: I mean, I was watching that press conference today, Van, and Bovino was asked, was Pretti armed when he was shot? He said, again, the investigation is going to uncover all of those facts. He was asked about evidence to back up Noem's claims that he was brandishing his weapon. He said that is why we have something called an investigation.
I mean, these are officials who are saying one thing and then when asked for evidence to back up what they are saying, then saying, let the investigation play out.
JONES: Well, he should have started with that and he also should have invited state and local forces to join him on something this serious. Now, don't forget, you have, Keith Ellison, who's the Attorney General there in Minnesota. Why does that name sound familiar? That's the Attorney General after George Floyd was murdered, that got the police officer arrested and convicted.
This is the most trusted Attorney General in the country when it comes to making sure that you don't have impunity from law enforcement. He's standing right there. You could bring in Keith Ellison, and you would have complete confidence of the country in whatever happens going forward. They've locked the door to make sure that Keith Ellison can't see any of the investigation.
What you're doing now is you're beginning to erode the legitimacy of the American system, of law enforcement, of any of these activities. That is very, very dangerous. The other thing I want to say is, when you talk to people who live on the ground in the Twin Cities, they're saying, we're not even seeing a fraction of what's going on, because just everyday people are getting harassed, hassled, thrown to the ground. American citizens are being arrested, held.
There's this kind of era of fear, but then conservatives who are not there, they're not seeing any of that, what they're seeing is ICE doing a heroic job, being harassed, being hassled and putting away really, really bad guys. They're showing all the people on conservative media who are pedophiles and traffickers.
And so, the country is now being further divided. The tactic of the Trump administration, the aggressiveness, the bad training, the green light, the lies. And then on top of that, your neighbors are not hearing what you're hearing tonight. Your neighbors are hearing a completely different story.
So, this is a very dangerous moment for the country. We've got to stick up for the Constitution and people who are being mistreated. But understand your neighbor is only being shown ICE agents being mistreated, not ICE agents doing the mistreating and really horrible people being arrested, not all the innocent people who are getting thrown to the ground. So, this is a very dangerous moment for democracy.
COLLINS: Van Jones, thank you for joining us tonight. I really appreciate you.
JONES: Thank you for the opportunity.
COLLINS: And we're going to be back with more of our coverage tonight of the tense situation that is unfolding in Minneapolis as people are pressing the federal government to back up their claims about what happened on the ground yesterday.
We're also tracking the latest developments with this historic winter storm that is playing out. It's now hit more than 200 million people this weekend in the United States. We'll bring you the latest on that right after this.
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