Local reporting about the earlier incident.
The earlier altercation occurred at E. 36th Street and Park Avenue in Minneapolis’ Powderhorn neighborhood — less than half a mile from the spot where an ICE officer shot Renee Good in her vehicle the week before.
Shapiro, a Minneapolis-based corporate tax attorney, rushed to the area just before 10:30 a.m. after Signal group chats alerted him to ICE enforcement activity near his young son’s Spanish immersion day care.
Shapiro said he witnessed several in the crowd of 15 to 20 people lobbing snowballs at agents. Then, he said, a bearded man positioned in the street — wearing a brown coat, black hat and sunglasses — proceeded to kick out the taillight of an agent’s SUV.
Shapiro’s account matches events captured in a separate video posted to social media Jan. 28 by conservative influencer Nick Sortor, showing the encounter from a different angle. A firearm is visible on Pretti’s waistband.
Shapiro’s recording begins seconds after Pretti kicks the vehicle, when he is seen flipping off the car full of federal agents. One beelines toward him and spins him to the ground. Other agents shoot pepper balls, toss smoke canisters and threaten the use of chemical irritants in an attempt to keep the angry crowd back.
Three other officers pounce on Pretti, appearing to strike him while he’s restrained.
The reaction to Pretti’s smashing of the taillight seemed overly aggressive, Shapiro later told the Star Tribune.
“Is it grounds for getting out of a car after you’ve already packed up and decided that you were going to leave and then assault a person and harass a group of observers? Probably not,” Shapiro said, noting that Pretti did not appear to fight back, only attempt to flee.
Eventually, Pretti wrestles out of his coat and runs away, rejoining the small group of protesters.
The 2½-minute video ends with a caravan of federal vehicles leaving the scene as smoke billows in the intersection. Shapiro approaches Pretti, who he did not know, and asks if he’s OK.
Pretti says that he is, before turning to the dispersing crowd. “Are we all OK? Are we all safe?” he calls out to the dozen or so bystanders who remain.
The previous encounter, first reported by CNN, allegedly began after Pretti stopped his car while observing ICE activity in the neighborhood. He joined a throng of demonstrators who began shouting and blowing their whistles as agents chased several people on foot.
CNN reported, citing an anonymous source, that claimed that Pretti suffered a broken rib after five agents tackled him and another leaned on his back about a week before his death. The story did not disclose when or where this allegedly happened.
U.S Department of Homeland Security officials told CNN they have “no record of this incident.”
Rewatching his earlier video with the knowledge that the man he met had died at the hands of government agents left him shaken. If it could happen to Pretti, he thought, it could happen to anyone.
Yet, Shapiro wasn’t surprised to learn that Pretti had continued protesting.
“People feel so adamantly about how wrong this is,” Shapiro said, referring to the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown.
From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
https://archive.is/j87pV#selection-981.0-1029.219