The land of opportunities to die. Cartoon of 26/01/2025 in CTXT
The names of the two ICE agents deployed in Minneapolis who on 24 January fired ten shots in less than five seconds at 37-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a US citizen, are now known.
ProPublica has revealed their identities. They are Border Patrol agent Jesús Ochoa (43) and Customs and Border Protection agent Raymundo Gutiérrez (35). Both are Hispanic and came to Minnesota from south Texas to be part of"Operation Metro Surge", ordered by Donald Trump.
According to ProPublica, CBP, which employs both men, has so far refused to release their names and has released few details about the deadly incident, which came just days after another immigration agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good, another Minneapolis protester and mother of three.
National security. Cartoon of 17/09/2025 in CTXT
Pretti's murder and the subsequent secrecy surrounding the agents involved comes as the country grapples with the fallout from President Donald Trump's aggressive anti-immigration campaign. Raids in cities across the country have been characterised by scenes of violence, both against immigrants and US citizens, by officers allowed to conceal their identities with masks, a practice almost unheard of in law enforcement. As a result, the public has been denied access to one of the primary means at its disposal to hold officers involved in such altercations accountable: their identity.
According to state and federal officials, at the time of the incident Pretti was armed with a legally owned pistol that he did not use at any time, and the sociopath for president accused Minnesota authorities of "inciting insurrection" and defended "patriotic" officers, while Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti tried to attack officers and brandish his weapon with "intent to do harm" and carry out acts of "domestic terrorism".
Democracy USA style. Cartoon of 09/01/2026 in CTXT
Some analysis of video recorded by bystanders appears to show a federal agent removing Pretti's gun from his hip before the first shots were fired. The masks of the agents and the chaos of the altercation make it difficult to differentiate between the two.
These videos appear to contradict claims by Greg Bovino and other officials, including DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, that Pretti had gone to attack the agents.
"The agents attempted to disarm the individual, but he violently resisted," Bovino said at a press conference on 25 January. "Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of his fellow agents, a Border Patrol agent fired defensive shots." That "defence" resulted in a swift death sentence executed on the spot for which Pretti was shot.
However, as Sebastiaan Faber points out in CTXT:"there was not a single truth in the account presented by Noem's office of the summary execution of Alex Pretti, who lost his life while trying to document the fascist acts of an authoritarian regime".
