Witness videos, grieving parents, and a commander calling the killing “a good job” have turned Alex Pretti’s death into a national fault line. To his father, Alex was a caregiver haunted by immigration raids; to federal officials, he is a “suspect” who “put himself in that situation.” Between those two descriptions lies the unanswered question at the heart of the outrage: was he still armed, or had agents already taken his gun when they opened fire?
As Gregory Bovino defends his agents and insists the “real victims” wear badges, protesters in Minneapolis stand in the cold where Alex fell, insisting the badge cannot be the final word. Even Donald Trump’s unusually cautious tone underscores how volatile this has become. An investigation may someday reconstruct each second. What it cannot easily repair is what millions now believe they saw with their own eyes.
