What has the Hennepin County Medical Examiner released about the Pretti case and timeline of injuries?
Executive summary
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner released a brief public report on Feb. 2 that lists Alex Pretti’s cause of death as “multiple gunshot wounds,” records the manner of death as “homicide,” and notes he was “shot by law enforcement officer,” with his place of death listed as Hennepin Healthcare; the form contains few additional forensic details [1] [2] [3]. The office provided no expanded autopsy narrative or detailed timeline of individual wounds in the public one‑page release, and outside video analysis and reporting have been used to reconstruct when and where the shots occurred [4] [5] [6].
1. What the medical examiner officially declared
The county’s public data form states Pretti died from multiple gunshot wounds and classifies the death as a homicide, explicitly indicating the injuries were inflicted by law enforcement officers, language repeated across local and national outlets summarizing the one‑page report [1] [2] [4].
2. Where and when the report says the death occurred
The report records that Pretti’s injuries were sustained during the Jan. 24 confrontation near 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue and lists his place of death as Hennepin Healthcare (the emergency room), information noted in the examiner’s release and cited by multiple news outlets [3] [7] [5].
3. What the report does not include — forensic detail and timelines
The medical examiner’s public release is terse: it provides cause (multiple gunshot wounds), manner (homicide), and “shot by law enforcement officer” but offers no breakdown of which bullet wounds were fatal, entry/exit wound descriptions, range or trajectory analysis, or a detailed minute‑by‑minute timeline of injuries; multiple outlets emphasize that no further specifics from the autopsy were included in the one‑page report [4] [5].
4. How investigators and journalists have supplemented the record
Because the examiner’s note is limited, news organizations and researchers have leaned on on‑scene video and other records to fill gaps: a Star Tribune analysis of footage estimated about 10 shots were fired during the incident, and ProPublica reported government records identifying the two federal agents involved — reporting that has shaped public timelines though it is distinct from the examiner’s medical findings [6] [4].
5. Legal and interpretive context the office supplied (and did not supply)
Local coverage reminds readers that a medical examiner’s classification of “homicide” is a medical determination meaning death at the hands of another and does not itself assign criminal culpability — a nuance repeated in reporting about the office’s role — yet the examiner’s release did not elaborate on investigative next steps or interpretive caveats in the specific Pretti notice [4] [6].
6. Discrepancies in scene accounts and outstanding questions
Reports and secondary sources (including a Wikipedia summary citing a treating physician’s observations) suggest multiple wounds in the back, chest and possibly neck and recount CPR and medics’ actions, but those specifics are not contained in the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s public form; because the office’s public statement is limited, independent verification of wound locations and sequence relies on other reporting and video analysis, not the examiner’s released autopsy text [8] [4].
7. What the medical examiner release means for the broader investigation
The examiner’s ruling establishes official cause and manner, a necessary medical record that typically informs criminal and administrative inquiries, but the sparse public release means law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and journalists must rely on other evidence to build a detailed timeline and to determine legal responsibility — a dynamic highlighted across coverage noting ongoing investigations and disputes over scene access and federal cooperation [2] [9].