How did Alex pretti get jumped from ice
Executive summary
Eleven days before he was fatally shot, Alex Pretti was involved in a widely reported physical clash with federal immigration agents in Minneapolis in which video shows him being tackled and restrained; local reporting and family statements say he suffered a broken rib and did not receive medical care afterward [1] [2] [3]. Multiple outlets have since published footage and contemporaneous accounts that conflict over his behavior in the encounter — some depict him as confronting agents and smashing a vehicle light, others and his attorney stress he posed no threat and was violently subdued [4] [5] [1].
1. The encounter captured on video: what the footage shows
Newly released clips from January 13 depict Pretti running toward federal agents, shouting at them, being tackled by several officers and ending up on the ground as agents appear to restrain him; outlets including The Guardian and the Daily Mail published those videos and described a forceful takedown by federal officers [1] [4]. Some footage and reporting also show Pretti confronting agents at close range and, according to Daily Mail captions, at one point smashing a federal SUV’s taillight and spitting, which opponents say contextualizes the agents’ response [5] [4].
2. Reported injuries and family and attorney statements
Sources reporting on the January 13 run-in say Pretti sustained a broken rib after being tackled, with CNN, KARE11 and Newser relaying accounts that one agent allegedly put weight on his back during the takedown, and the family’s attorney and representatives have said Pretti did not receive subsequent medical care [2] [3] [6] [1]. Steve Schleicher, who represents the family, characterized the incident as a “violent assault” and argued it could not justify Pretti’s later killing, a framing repeated in several outlets covering both events [1] [4].
3. Conflicting narratives: protester versus aggressor
Reporting shows a stark divide in how the January 13 encounter is portrayed: sympathetic accounts and the family stress an unprovoked federal use of force and emphasize Pretti’s injuries [1] [6], while other outlets emphasize footage of Pretti taunting agents, approaching them aggressively and damaging federal property, assertions used by some commentators to suggest he escalated the situation [5] [4]. The available material does not settle intent or threat level conclusively; each depiction is sourced to different clips and witness statements and the Department of Homeland Security announced it was investigating the footage [4] [1].
4. How this prior clash factored into wider scrutiny after the Jan. 24 shooting
The January 13 confrontation became a focal point after Pretti’s death on Jan. 24: investigators, political leaders and media linked the earlier incident to questions about federal tactics, the identification of agents involved, and whether protesters were being tracked — reporting noted DHS memos about collecting protester information and ProPublica later named two agents implicated in the fatal shooting [3] [7]. The Hennepin County medical examiner’s later ruling that Pretti’s death was a homicide intensified scrutiny of both the earlier encounter and the subsequent lethal use of force [8] [9].
5. What is known and what remains uncertain
Documentation shows Pretti was tackled by multiple federal agents on Jan. 13 and reported to have broken a rib; video clips circulated widely and DHS said it would investigate [1] [2]. What remains unsettled is the full context inside the encounter — why agents chose that level of force at that time, whether Pretti was medically evaluated on scene, and whether information from the encounter influenced later actions — those details are not definitively established in the cited reporting [1] [3].