Border Patrol agents were seeking a man with a criminal record when an agent fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, the Border Patrol commander said Sunday. But the Minnesota Department of Corrections says state court records show only misdemeanor-level traffic offenses from more than a decade ago.
Commander Greg Bovino said Sunday that Jose Huerta-Chuma has a record of domestic assault, intentional infliction of bodily harm and disorderly conduct. He had not been apprehended as of early Sunday afternoon.
Huerta-Chuma has never been in prison in Minnesota, according to a Saturday night statement from the Corrections Department.
“DOC records further indicate that an individual by this name was previously held in federal immigration custody in a local Minnesota jail in 2018, during President Trump’s first administration,” the statement said. “Any decisions regarding release from federal custody at that time would have been made by federal authorities. DOC has no information explaining why this individual was released.”
Bovino said he didn’t know of the 2018 case, but said Huerta-Chuman is in the U.S. illegally.
“We can go back and look and blame,” Bovino said. “… Right now, my mission is to take this individual off the street.”
Border Patrol: Pretti was ‘interfering’
Bovino, who has recently been holding daily press conferences, started Sunday’s by talking about “choices.”
“When politicians, community leaders and some journalists engage in that heated rhetoric we keep talking about, when they make the choice to vilify law enforcement, calling law enforcement names like ‘Gestapo’ or using the term ‘kidnapping’,” Bovino said. “… When you choose to listen to that, that is a choice, and there are consequences and actions there also.”
“I think we saw that yesterday, and those actions and choices can obviously have tragic consequences, bad outcomes,” he continued. “Outcomes that law enforcement never wants to see. Law enforcement never wants to see a bad consequence due to a poor choice.”
Bovino said Sunday that he hasn’t reached a conclusion about what happened, but added: “What I do know is this individual was on that scene several minutes before that shooting, interfering with a lawful, legal, ethical law enforcement operation to arrest Jose Huerta-Chuma. And again, it’s back to choices. … When someone makes the choice to come into an active law enforcement scene, interfere, obstruct, delay or assault” law enforcement “and they bring a weapon to do that, that is a choice that that individual made.”
Pretti, 37, was an intensive care nurse at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Minneapolis. Family members said he cared deeply about people, was upset by President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in his city, and participated in protests following the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
“The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting,” his family said in a statement. They added that videos showed Pretti was not holding a gun when he was tackled by federal agents, but holding his phone with one hand and using the other to shield a woman who was being pepper-sprayed.
ICE says violence against officers includes finger partially bit off
Pretti had a permit to carry a gun, the Minneapolis police chief said Saturday.
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The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus said in a Saturday statement: “Every peaceable Minnesotan has the right to keep and bear arms — including while attending protests, acting as observers, or exercising their First Amendment rights. These rights do not disappear when someone is lawfully armed, and they must be respected and protected at all times.”
Meanwhile, ICE says there has been a “continued uptick in violence” against federal officers in Minnesota and across the U.S.
In Minneapolis on Saturday, “a crowd of violent agitators tackled an ICE special agent,” said Marcos Charles, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations executive associate director.
“When one of our special response teams went to assist, a protester literally bit off part of that agent’s finger,” he said, adding that an arrest was made. The agent received medical attention at the scene and was treated at a hospital.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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