The federal agents involved in the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti have been reassigned, Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino announced.
Bovino spoke at a news conference in Minneapolis on Sunday, one day after Pretti was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent during an immigration operation in the city. Bovino revealed that the agents at the scene of the shooting have since been moved to “other locations.”
“All agents that were involved in that scene are working not in Minneapolis, but in other locations. That’s for their safety,” he told reporters.
Bovino added that the relocation was done to prevent “doxxing” of the agents, pledging to look out for their safety as the shooting has inflamed tensions nationwide.
It is unclear how many agents were reassigned, though bystander footage of the shooting shows at least five attempting to subdue Pretti before he was shot.
Bovino also said earlier Sunday that the agents involved would “likely” be doing administrative tasks for Border Patrol going forward rather than being a part of the sweeping immigration raids in cities across the country.
The reassignment comes as footage has painted a much different picture of how the shooting unfolded.
While the Department of Homeland Security has said Pretti approached agents with a handgun and “violently resisted” being disarmed, video shows Pretti only holding his cellphone and briefly intervening when an agent pushes a female protester to the ground.
BOVINO SAYS AGENTS DID ‘GOOD JOB’ TAKING DOWN PRETTI BEFORE HE COULD SHOOT LAW ENFORCEMENT
That agent proceeds to pepper-spray Pretti, who holds up his left hand and does not resist. A violent scrum then ensues as multiple agents attempt to subdue him. At some point in the struggle, the agents discovered he was armed, and one appears to remove the firearm from Pretti’s waistband and away from the scene. Two agents then pull out their guns, and at least 10 shots ring out.
Bovino has defended the agents’ action despite discrepancies in the accounts, saying they did a “good job” responding to Pretti, who “decided to inject himself” into the situation.
