The Trump administration is reviewing body camera footage from Customs and Border Protection agents involved in a recent deadly encounter with Minnesota protester Alex Pretti.
“There is body camera footage from multiple angles which investigators are currently reviewing,” a Department of Homeland Security official told the Washington Examiner.
CBP officers work under the umbrella of DHS and are working alongside Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain illegal immigrants in Minnesota as part of “Operation Metro Surge.”
A CBP agent shot and killed Pretti on Saturday, sparking renewed protests in the state against ICE, as well as three separate federal investigations into the incident, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday. Federal investigators are reviewing footage from multiple CBP agents’ body cameras, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told NBC News.
Pretti appeared to be recording his interaction with agents before struggling with them and ultimately being fatally shot. DHS currently has his phone, an official with the Department of Justice told NewsNation on Monday, likely providing investigators with vital first-hand evidence as they unravel the incident.
“As President Trump said yesterday, the administration is reviewing everything with respect to the shooting, and we will let that investigation play out,” Leavitt said during a press briefing, noting that DHS and the FBI are investigating the incident while CBP is conducting an internal review.
The Trump administration appeared to take steps to de-escalate tensions in Minnesota this week. In addition to publicizing the investigations into Pretti’s death, Trump announced on Monday morning that he had a “very good” phone call with Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) and is sending border czar Tom Homan to the state to hold conversations with officials.
“I told Governor Walz that I would have Tom Homan call him, and that what we are looking for are any and all Criminals that they have in their possession. The Governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future,” Trump said.
Walz said the two held a “productive” call, during which the president “agreed to look into reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota and working with the state in a more coordinated fashion on immigration enforcement regarding violent criminals.”
Leavitt suggested that CBP would leave the state if Minnesota dropped sanctuary policies limiting local authorities’ ability to hand over illegal immigrants to ICE.
“If Gov. Walz and [Minneapolis] Mayor Frey implement these common-sense, cooperative measures, that, I will add, have already been implemented in nearly every single other state across the country, Customs and Border Protection will not be needed to support ICE on the ground in Minnesota,” she said.
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE FATAL SHOOTING OF ALEX PRETTI IN MINNESOTA
In the meantime, unrest continues to build in Minnesota, with protesters most recently breaking into a Hilton hotel they believed to be housing ICE officers.
“This is part of a coordinated campaign of violence against law enforcement,” DHS said. “These violent anarchists will not deter ICE from carrying out the American people’s mandate to arrest and deport the worst of the worst.”
