Newly surfaced video footage has quietly changed the context around the Alex Pretti story, and Americans deserve the whole picture, not the half-truths pushed by sympathetic outlets. The footage shows a January 13 altercation in Minneapolis—eleven days before Pretti’s fatal shooting—where he is seen in a heated confrontation with federal agents.
Those who watched the new clips will see Pretti shout at the agents, appear to spit toward a vehicle, and kick out a taillight before officers move in and subdue him amid a chaotic crowd. Masked agents can be seen tackling him and using crowd-control measures as onlookers react to the scene, underlining that the encounter was more than a tranquil bystander incident.
Critically, the videos also show that Pretti had a firearm in his waistband during the January 13 scuffle, though he did not brandish it on camera; later footage of the January 24 shooting appears to show him holding a phone when shots were fired. Federal officials are reviewing both episodes, and those reviews must account for the full sequence of events rather than settling for the easiest political narrative.
Conservative commentators like Megyn Kelly and legal voices such as Will Chamberlain of the Article III Project have rightly called out the media’s rush to a one-sided storyline that paints every protest casualty as a saint and every federal officer as a villain. That is not journalism, it is propaganda, and it does a grave disservice to truth and to the people who depend on law and order.
Let’s be clear: exposing agitators who look to provoke confrontations is not victim-shaming, it’s common sense. Bad actors who seek viral fame by provoking federal officers should not be transformed into martyrs overnight by an eager press corps; Americans expect honest reporting, rigorous investigation, and accountability on all sides, not performance art for social media applause.
The bottom line is simple: investigate everything, politicize nothing. The Department of Homeland Security and local authorities must complete a transparent review of both the January 13 scuffle and the January 24 shooting so that voters and victims alike can see the facts. Patriots who believe in law, order, and the rule of law should demand a full accounting—and refuse to allow the media or political operatives to weaponize tragedy for their own agendas.
