#immigration + #trump

Video from bystanders showed that Pretti had not attacked officers, as Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said immediately after the shooting. Critics raised further complaints after Noem and Homeland Security advisor Stephen Miller both called Pretti a domestic terrorist before an investigation had concluded.

What happened before and at the moment of the shooting? published at 08:14 08:14 As we've posted earlier, our colleagues at BBC Verify have analysed seven videos showing the moments leading up to and around the shooting. The footage shows an agent pushing someone over, with Pretti standing between them and the agent while filming on his phone. The agent pepper sprays Pretti in the face. Pretti raises his hand defensively and turns away, pockets his phone, and starts to help the woman on the floor as the agent continues spraying. Other agents rush over. They drag Pretti away and several agents wrestle him to the floor. Pretti then tries to crawl away - he’s clearly not holding a gun. An agent in a grey jacket is seen reaching for something from Pretti’s waist. Next to him, another agent draws his gun. The agent in the grey jacket turns away from Pretti, holding what appears to be a pistol. Less than a second later, an agent shoots Pretti. Ten shots are heard in total. For context, after the shooting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem gave the following description of what happened: "An individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun. The officers attempted to disarm the suspect but the armed suspect violently resisted. Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, an agent fired defensive shots."

Republican Congressman Thomas Massie has defended the carrying of a gun as a "constitutional right", following the Department of Homeland and Security's claim that Alex Pretti was armed when he was shot dead by federal agents yesterday. "Carrying a firearm is not a death sentence, it’s a Constitutionally protected God-given right," Massie says, criticising an X post from US attorney Bill Essayli, which alludes to Pretti's death. Essayli, in his own post, says there is a "high likelihood" federal officers will "be legally justified" in shooting an armed person who approaches them. Generally, Republicans celebrate the right to possess firearms as enshrined in the US Constitution.