A DOJ civil rights probe into Alex Pretti’s shooting is now underway after federal immigration officers fatally shot the 37-year-old Minneapolis resident during an enforcement operation last weekend. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the FBI is leading the review, with potential assistance from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the unit that typically handles law enforcement use-of-force civil rights cases.
Pretti’s death has become a national flashpoint because it unfolded in public, was partially captured on cellphone video, and came amid heightened federal immigration enforcement activity in Minnesota. The investigation, federal officials stressed, is still in its early stages, and any potential criminal civil rights case would face a high legal threshold.
What the DOJ civil rights probe will examine
Blanche said investigators will look at everything that could shed light on what happened not only during the encounter itself, but also in the days and weeks leading up to it. Federal officials have not provided a timeline for the findings or identified the agents involved.
A civil rights probe can move in several directions, including a determination that the use of force was lawful, policy issues that require corrective action, or, in rare cases, a criminal civil rights prosecution. Federal officials have noted that the bar for charging officers in federal use-of-force cases is high, and the department’s approach often depends on whether investigators can prove a willful violation of constitutional rights.
The Justice Department has also signaled it is not, at this time, opening a similar criminal civil rights probe into the earlier Jan. 7 Minneapolis killing of Renée Good, who was shot by an ICE officer, a decision that has added to public scrutiny around how federal cases are selected.
Several key facts about the encounter are now widely reported and partially documented in a preliminary account provided to Congress by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. According to that report, CBP personnel supporting an operation near the intersection of Nicollet Avenue and 26th Street encountered civilians in the roadway. A CBP officer deployed OC spray as officers tried to move people out of the street. The report states agents then attempted to take Pretti into custody, a struggle followed, and a Border Patrol agent repeatedly yelled that Pretti had a gun shortly before two federal officers discharged their weapons.
The CBP timeline says Pretti was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center and pronounced dead later that morning. It also says a Border Patrol agent took possession of Pretti’s firearm after the shooting and secured it.
Why the FBI is now leading the investigation
The shift to the FBI matters because it changes who collects evidence, interviews witnesses, and coordinates forensic work. AP reported that Homeland Security Investigations had previously been positioned to lead the federal review, and that DHS now says the FBI will take over with HSI in a support role, while CBP conducts its own internal investigation.
