A viral video shows Alex Pretti spitting on a federal agent and kicking out a vehicle’s taillight, footage released by the BBC that was recorded 11 days before his death.
Executive summary
A video published this week and attributed to footage from January 13 appears to show a man identified by family representatives and media outlets as Alex Pretti spitting toward a federal agents’ vehicle and kicking out a taillight 11 days before he was fatally shot on January 24 [1] [2]. Major outlets and verification teams — including the BBC working with The News Movement — have treated the clip as authentic or as showing a person who “appears to be” Pretti, and the clip has been amplified across partisan media [3] [4] [2].
1. What the footage shows and how multiple outlets describe it
The video released by The News Movement and subsequently published or confirmed as authentic by the BBC shows an encounter in which a man yells at officers in an unmarked SUV, appears to spit in the direction of the vehicle, and then kicks at the right taillight as the vehicle pulls away, repeatedly striking it until it breaks; agents then exit, tackle him to the ground, and deploy chemical irritants into the crowd nearby [5] [1] [4].
2. Who identified the person in the footage and how
The News Movement said it worked with BBC Verify and used facial-recognition analysis to link the man in the January 13 clip to Alex Pretti at a high confidence level, and family representatives reportedly confirmed the man in the video was Pretti; multiple outlets repeat that verification or family confirmation [2] [4] [1]. Reports note BBC’s involvement explicitly in analysis and verification [3] [2].
3. How the clip fits into a larger timeline and what the other footage shows
Media accounts place the January 13 incident roughly 11 days before the January 24 fatal shooting; contemporaneous videos of that earlier encounter show agents firing tear gas and pepper balls into a crowd as they restrained the man, who appears to break free and later remain on the scene when agents depart [1] [5]. Outlets also report that in the January 13 footage a handgun is visible tucked into the man’s waistband, and state officials later confirmed Pretti had a permit to carry concealed firearms, though reports stress he did not handle the weapon during that earlier scuffle [1] [5].
4. How the footage has been used in public debate
Conservative commentators and public figures seized on the clip to argue it demonstrated threatening behavior by Pretti in the days before his death; President Trump and right-leaning media reposted or highlighted the video to support narratives that Pretti provoked officers [5] [3]. Conversely, Pretti’s family and sympathetic commentators have pushed back, and several outlets emphasize that the video does not by itself supply a full account of the later shooting or of what preceded the January 13 altercation [5] [1].
5. What independent reporting and officials say about the link to the fatal shooting
News organizations report that Homeland Security and Border Patrol officers have been placed on leave while reviews proceed, and congressional and political responses have followed the shooting; reporters caution that the January 13 footage is one piece of a contested public record and does not on its own resolve questions about use of force on January 24 [6] [5]. Media fact-checkers also flagged posts that claimed the video was AI-generated; outlets reporting the clip’s publication note BBC and family confirmation as counterpoints to those claims [4] [2].
6. Limits of available reporting and outstanding questions
Existing coverage documents the content and provenance claims around the January 13 video and shows it was widely circulated and politically weaponized, but reporting does not establish how — or whether — the earlier encounter directly influenced the decisions or perceptions of agents on January 24, nor does it reconstruct unambiguously what led to the initial January 13 confrontation; investigative records, bodycam footage, or official accounts beyond what outlets have cited are not yet public in the reporting summarized here [1] [6].
7. Bottom line
The clip published by The News Movement and corroborated by BBC reporting and family representatives appears to show Alex Pretti spitting on or toward a federal agents’ vehicle and kicking out its taillight on January 13, and that footage has been used by competing political voices to shape narratives about the later fatal shooting; however, the video is one verified piece of evidence within an evolving and disputed record and does not by itself answer core questions about the January 24 use of deadly force [3] [2] [1].