Two federal agents who fired in Minneapolis shooting placed on administrative leave

A preliminary internal review by the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection concludes that two federal officers discharged their weapons during a Jan. 24 encounter in Minneapolis that left 37-year-old Alex Pretti dead, and federal officials have placed those two agents on administrative leave, the review provided to Congress states.

Pretti, a registered intensive care nurse, was shot multiple times and pronounced dead at the scene. Forensic audio analysis reviewed in the investigation found a rapid volley of shots, 10 rounds in fewer than five seconds. Video examined by investigators and independent analysts shows a physical scuffle between Pretti and federal agents, with at least one agent emerging from the struggle appearing to hold a handgun and another drawing a handgun immediately before the shots were fired. The DHS/CBP review says the shooting followed a scuffle and an officer’s call that Pretti had a gun.

Whether Pretti was armed at the instant the agents fired remains contested. Independent video analyses cited by investigators reported no clear sign of a firearm in Pretti’s hand in available footage, setting up a direct factual dispute with contemporaneous officer radio calls and portions of the internal review that relay an assertion of a gun before the shooting.

The administrative status of the two agents who fired has been the subject of conflicting public statements. A DHS spokesperson said the officers who fired were placed on administrative leave immediately after the shooting. CBP communications described the removal from duty as part of routine procedures, saying the involved agents had been taken off duty "following standard protocol," and a CBP spokesperson said the agents "have been on leave since Saturday." Those accounts stand at odds with a public statement by a CBP commander the day after the shooting that the agents "are working, not in Minneapolis, but in other locations," a remark that federal officials and investigators are now reconciling with the internal review and personnel actions.

The incident has prompted multiple internal and external reviews but public reporting has not yet identified the next investigative steps, including whether prosecutors will pursue criminal charges or CBP will pursue administrative discipline. CBP officials have described removing officers from field duty after lethal encounters as standard while investigative work proceeds, but they have not specified timelines or the investigative authorities leading the current probe.

The Minneapolis shooting occurred amid a significant surge of federal immigration enforcement activity in the state that DHS has described as its largest operation there. That deployment and the deadly encounters that followed have intensified scrutiny of federal tactics and command oversight. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had publicly described Pretti as "domestic terrorism" and said he was "brandishing" a gun, assertions that are undercut by some video analyses and remain a central factual dispute in the ongoing review.

Key factual questions remain unresolved: whether Pretti possessed a weapon at the moment shots were fired, the precise sequence of actions in the moments before the shooting, and the timing and rationale for the conflicting public statements about the agents’ duty status. Investigators and oversight officials now face the task of reconciling forensic evidence, video, audio, and internal communications to produce a definitive account that can guide potential disciplinary or criminal decisions.