A witness to Saturday’s fatal shooting of a 37-year-old man by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer in Minneapolis said in a court declaration that the man was killed after he attempted to help a woman who had been pushed to the ground by federal agents.
The witness, whose name was redacted in court documents filed by ACLU of Minnesota, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pepper-sprayed three observers, including Alex Pretti, before an agent shoved a woman to the ground, and Pretti went to help her.
“The ICE agents just kept spraying,” the witness said, according to the declaration. “More agents came over and grabbed the man who was still trying to help the woman get up.”
A photograph of 37-year-old Alex Pretti can be seen at a makeshift memorial in the area where he was shot dead by federal immigration agents earlier in the day in Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 24, 2026.
Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images
The witness said that agents pushed Pretti to the ground and added that “it didn’t look like he was trying to resist, just trying to help the woman up.”
“They threw him to the ground. Four or five agents had him on the ground and they just started shooting him,” the witness said. “They shot him so many times.”
The witness, according to the declaration, recorded a video depicting the events leading up to the agent shooting Pretti and kept recording for several minutes afterwards, according to the declaration.
The declaration was filed Saturday by the ACLU of Minnesota as part of an emergency motion to lift a stay on a federal judge’s order that barred immigration agents from arresting protesters or using nonlethal weapons against them.
People gather around a makeshift memorial at the site where a man was fatally shot by federal agents trying to detain him, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 24, 2026.
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez ruled that federal agents deployed to the state are prohibited from arresting or detaining peaceful protesters in retaliation for protected conduct.
While a federal appeals court stayed that order last week, the ACLU argued Saturday that the shooting has “created an urgent need for intervention to prevent irreparable injury to the named plaintiffs, protesters, and observers.”
“Appellees anticipate that thousands of protesters and observers will continue to take to the streets to exercise their constitutional rights,” the ACLU said in the filing. “As federal agents deployed to Operation Metro Surge interact with those individuals, it is more essential than ever to reinstate the district court’s narrow, considered injunction to prevent violent retaliation.”
The Department of Homeland Security claimed Pretti approached officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun and when officers attempted to disarm him, he “violently resisted.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks by a screen showing an image of a handgun that the Department of Homeland Security says was recovered from a man who was shot during his arrest in Minneapolis, in Washington, January 24, 2026.
Nathan Howard/Reuters
“Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, an agent fired defensive shots,” DHS said.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Patrol Commander at Large Greg Bovino have claimed — without providing further evidence — that Pretti arrived at the scene “to inflict maximum damage on individuals.” Noem told reporters that his actions amounted to “domestic terrorism.”
At a news conference on Sunday, Bovino said that all of the officers involved in the fatal shooting of Pretti are still working. He said that for their own safety and because of doxxing, the agents have been moved to other locations, which he did not disclose.
“All agents that were involved in that scene are working not in Minneapolis, but in other locations,” Bovino said.
But the witness who submitted the declaration as part of the ACLU court filing disputed the account of federal officials, alleging, “It is wrong.”
“The man did not approach the agents with a gun. He approached them with a camera. He was just trying to help a woman get up and they took him to the ground,” the witness said, according to the declaration.
The witness, according to the declaration, added, “The agents pulled the man on the ground. I didn’t see him touch any of them — he wasn’t even turned toward them.”
ABC News’ Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.