Internal CBP report challenges DHS’ narrative in Alex Pretti shooting

In a preliminary report on the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, investigators from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection provided lawmakers with a nearly minute-by-minute account from the agents involved in the encounter — but left unanswered critical questions about what exactly led those agents to fire the fatal shots. 

CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility sent the preliminary report to lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Tuesday afternoon, marking the most extensive federal accounting of the shooting to date. In some instances, it undercut statements made by top Department of Homeland Security and White House officials in the hours after the shooting. 

The report, obtained by MS NOW, states that CBP personnel attempted to take Pretti into custody after officers initially tried to move the 37-year-old ICU nurse and a female protester out of a roadway, then pepper-sprayed them. 

“A struggle ensued,” the report said, after Pretti “resisted CBP personnel’s efforts” to take him into custody. 

“During the struggle, a [Border Patrol Agent] yelled, ‘He’s got a gun!’ multiple times,” according to the report, which also revealed that two federal agents fired shots during the confrontation. 

“Approximately five seconds later, a BPA discharged his CBP-issued Glock 19 and a CBPO also discharged his CBP-issued Glock 47 at Pretti,” the report said. “After the shooting, a BPA advised he had possession of Pretti’s firearm. The BPA subsequently cleared and secured Pretti’s firearm in his vehicle.”

The report does not specify exactly when Pretti’s firearm was retrieved. But as MS NOW has reported, video clips show what appears to be his gun was recovered at roughly the same moment someone can be heard saying “gun.” 

Multiple veteran law enforcement officers told MS NOW they have been unable to see a justification for the shooting. Some said the video of officers searching for a gun on Pretti’s body after he was shot suggested to them that the agent who fired may have believed Pretti had a weapon that posed an imminent threat when a fellow officer said “gun.”

If true, the officer may have wrongly believed Pretti posed an active threat. But the report delivered to lawmakers on Tuesday did not provide any further context for why the agents decided to shoot when they did. 

After the shooting on Saturday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem made a number of statements contradicted by witness videos, including that Pretti was “brandishing” a firearm, that he was at the scene to “inflict maximum damage on individuals and kill law enforcement” and that “the officers attempted to disarm this individual, but the armed suspect reacted violently.”  

The report, based on “a preliminary review of body worn camera footage and CBP documentation” by the Office of Professional Responsibility, makes no such claims. The office is CBP’s internal investigative body for potential criminal conduct by its officers, and the report is the first to be released among multiple inquiries into the shooting.  

Gil Kerlikowske, who served as Border Patrol commissioner under President Barack Obama, said the report leaves many significant gaps in the timeline of the shooting. “I think they’re trying to be about as vague as possible,” he told MS NOW. “I still think we have a lot of questions.” 

But Kerlikowske added that the investigators of CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility were likely more qualified to conduct the investigation than the unit that has taken the lead on the investigation: Homeland Security Investigations. HSI, an arm of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, normally focuses on investigating human trafficking and threats to national security. 

The review states that it “may be updated and clarified as additional details become available.” 

Additional reporting was contributed by Carol Leonnig