Alex Pretti's Final Moments: Videos Show Details Of Border Patrol Shooting

MINNEAPOLIS — Video footage of the weekend’s fatal shooting in Minneapolis appears to show that 37-year-old protester Alex Pretti was on the ground with his gun removed from his person when he was killed by a Border Patrol agent.

The incident occurred around 9 a.m. Saturday and is the second death of an American citizen to take place this month during an encounter with federal authorities in Minneapolis.

In the videos, circulating online and published by The New York Times and USA Today, an agent shoves two people who aren’t Pretti and Pretti puts himself between them and the agent, with one hand up and the other holding a phone.

The agent shoves Pretti in the chest and pepper-sprays him, and Pretti appears to be holding on to one of the other two people who were shoved before he is taken to the ground and surrounded by a scrum of agents, the videos, taken from multiple angles, show.

Amid the scrum, an agent in a gray jacket appears to remove a gun from somewhere on Pretti’s person and exit the scrum holding it, immediately before shots ring out, one of the videos shows. In a different video, shouts of “Gun! Gun!” are audible. An agent unholsters a weapon and begins firing, and Pretti falls, the video shows.

Afterward, authorities said Pretti had a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun. He was licensed to carry a concealed weapon.

The Department of Homeland Security said Pretti was shot after he “approached” Border Patrol officers with a gun. Officials did not say if Pretti brandished the weapon or kept it hidden. An agency statement said officers fired “defensive shots” after Pretti “violently resisted."

However, in an interview Sunday with The Wall Street Journal, President Donald Trump responded to questions about whether the officer who killed Pretti did the right thing by saying authorities were “looking,” “reviewing everything” and would “come out with a determination.”

The president also said of immigration authorities’ prolonged presence in the Twin Cities, “at some point we will leave,” adding federal law enforcement has “done a phenomenal job.”

The shooting occurred when officers were pursuing a man in the country illegally who was wanted for domestic assault, Customs and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino said.

Protesters routinely try to disrupt such operations, and they sounded high-pitched whistles, honked horns and yelled at officers. Among them was Pretti.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.