ANS -- The Murder of Alex Pretti

Here is what Rebecca Solnit has to say about the killing of Alex Pretti today.  I also heard that they held him down and shot him in the back to kill him. I don't know if that's true, but it sure looks like it from the picture that accompanied this piece. 

--Kim

Rebecca Solnit 

ndSrpesoot19ai77315g7h4ca8lit09m81i022utmci411h46tal59fm39f7 ·

Gift link. "An I.C.U. nurse shot by federal agents was an American citizen with no criminal record, the city police chief said. A New York Times video analysis shows he was holding a phone, not a gun."

More from Times reporting: Federal agents shot and killed a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident on Saturday morning, prompting renewed protests and clashes in a city where tensions have reached a breaking point after weeks of aggressive federal immigration enforcement. As dusk fell, Minnesota officials deployed the National Guard in an effort to prevent possible violence.

Colleagues and a senior law enforcement official identified the man who was shot as Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an intensive-care nurse. Videos analyzed by The New York Times appear to contradict the accounts of federal officials, who said Mr. Pretti approached Border Patrol agents with a handgun and the intent to "massacre" them.

Video footage shows Mr. Pretti stepping between a woman and an agent who is pepper spraying her. Other agents then pepper spray Mr. Pretti, who is holding a phone in one hand and nothing in the other. His concealed weapon is found only after he is restrained on the sidewalk, the videos show, and taken from him before the agents opened fire.

Federal officials posted images of the gun they said Mr. Pretti was carrying, and have blocked attempts by Minnesota law enforcement officers to investigate the encounter. Chief Brian O'Hara of the Minneapolis police said Mr. Pretti was an American citizen with no criminal record, and had a valid firearms permit, allowing him to openly carry a gun.

A colleague of Mr. Pretti, Dimitri Drekonja, said he worked in the intensive-care unit at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Minneapolis. "He was a really great colleague and a really great friend," Mr. Drekonja said. "The default look on his face was a smile."