US President Donald Trump said Friday that the man shot dead by US federal agents in Minneapolis last week was an "agitator and perhaps insurrectionist."
"Agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist, Alex Pretti's stock has gone way down with the just released video of him screaming and spitting in the face of a very calm and under control ICE Officer," he posted on Truth Social.
Trump was referring to footage reportedly showing Pretti in a scuffle with federal agents 11 days before he was shot dead.
The Jan. 13 scuffle was captured in a pair of videos that show Pretti shouting an expletive at the federal officers and struggling with them.
His winter coat comes off when he's on the ground and he either breaks free or the officers let him go and he scurries away.
When he turns his back to the camera, what appears to be a handgun is visible in his waistband. At no point do the videos show Pretti reaching for the gun and it is unclear whether the federal agents saw it.
A person with knowledge of the incident confirmed to The Associated Press that the man in the videos is Pretti and that he had told his family of the confrontation. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters sensitive to the family.
The video rekindled the national debate about the death of Pretti, 37, an intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center. Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, posted one of the videos on X and commented, "Just a peaceful legal observer."
Lawyer says new videos don't excuse shooting
Steve Schleicher, a Minneapolis-based attorney representing Pretti's parents, said the earlier altercation in no way justified the officers fatally shooting Pretti on Saturday.
"A week before Alex was gunned down in the street — despite posing no threat to anyone — he was violently assaulted by a group of (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents," Schleicher said in a written statement. "Nothing that happened a full week before could possibly have justified Alex's killing at the hands of ICE on Jan 24."