About Jeffrey Pretti. Is it true that the gun picture the government showed was found appearing days ago on Reddit ?

1. What officials have said about a gun — and what videos show

Federal officials, including the Department of Homeland Security, told reporters that agents fired after the man “approached” U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun, language that frames the shooting as a response to an armed approach ^[1]. At the same time, reporting stresses that bystander video obtained by the Associated Press did not show a gun in his hand, and officials did not specify whether he brandished it on camera, leaving a gap between official description and what independent footage reveals ^[1].

2. What social media and Reddit actually circulated about Pretti

Reddit threads and other social platforms circulated personal details about Alex Jeffrey Pretti — snapshots of an alleged LinkedIn account, claims he was a University of Minnesota alum and a nurse, and impassioned responses denying he was armed — but the stories provided do not document a separate Reddit post that displayed a photograph of a gun later shown by the government ^{[2] [3]}. Hindustan Times reporting notes that Reddit users shared LinkedIn snapshots and argued over Pretti’s status as a nurse or alum, and social posts disputed the official narrative, but these pieces do not connect Reddit posts to any government‑released gun photograph ^{[2] [3]}.

3. Gaps in public record and limits of the available reporting

The reporting available here documents three distinct things — DHS statements about an armed approach, bystander video that does not depict a gun, and widespread social‑media discussion about Pretti’s identity — but none documents an official “gun picture” that was demonstrably posted on Reddit days earlier ^{[1] [4] [2]}. Because the cited articles do not report that the government displayed a gun photograph nor that such an image originated on Reddit, it is not possible from these sources to verify the claim; absence of evidence in these pieces is not a proof the event didn’t happen, only that it is not reported here ^{[1] [2]}.

4. How to interpret competing narratives and who benefits from them

The media environment around this shooting has generated rapid, partisan narratives: federal authorities offer a public safety frame emphasizing an armed approach, family and supporters stress his profession as an ICU nurse and highlight footage that does not clearly show a weapon, and social media amplifies both identification details and skepticism — a dynamic that can encourage the spread of unverified claims such as an image being recycled from Reddit into official evidence ^{[1] [4] [2]}. Journalistic caution means treating assertions about the provenance of any photograph as unverified unless a primary record — a government release, a timestamped image archive, or authenticated metadata — is cited; none of the available reporting supplies that verification ^{[1] [2]}.

5. Bottom line and next steps for verification

Based on the documents provided: the statement that the government’s gun photograph was first posted on Reddit days earlier is unsubstantiated here; reporting instead shows official claims about an armed approach, bystander video lacking a visible gun, and vigorous Reddit discussion about Pretti’s background, but no documented chain tying a government‑shown gun image to Reddit ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Confirming or refuting the specific provenance of any gun photograph requires additional reporting: an official release or press package showing the image and its timestamp, forensic metadata, or an independent archive documenting the image’s earliest public appearance — none of which appear in the cited articles ^{[1] [4]}.