Well, I did say I hoped things would not escalate. Yet within three weeks, here we are again. Another US citizen, this time 37 year old ICU nurse Alex Pretti, paid the ultimate prize for excercising his rights and wasshot by ICE today. And on many points the situation is eerily reminiscent of how officials handled the Renée Good shooting.

The facts

Multiple video angles paint a pretty clear picture of what transpired. People were protesting ICE actions, and Alex was among them, filming. Two females and an ICE agent move towards his position. The ICE agent agressively shoves one of the women, who does not appear to be linked to Alex, to the ground. Alex tries to help her and intervene in the situation. The ICE agent further escalates by first spraying Alex with pepper spray in the face, then jumping him with 6 or 7 officers, because of course they do.

Important here is the fact that Alex was legally carrying a handgun (ammirite 2nd amendment folks?) which he is never shown to be grabbing, using, or even presenting to the officers, in any of the video angles. Every video shows Alex filming with a smart phone but zero intention to use his gun. Remember that so far he has done nothing outside of his rights or the law, nothing.

A short struggle ensues. It appears from some video angles that Alex’ handgun is retrieved from his (still alive) body and taken away. Yet, for some unknown and probably unjustified reason, shot starts firing. Though not really clear which agent shoots first, a number of them do shoot and riddle Alex with bullets, even after already appearing lifeless on the ground.

The lies

The playbook is similar to when Renée was shot: Lie, lie, lie. As usual, the circumstances and behaviors of the victim leading up to the shooting are twisted beyond recognition to fit some sick narrative that this was his own fault. “An individual with a semi-automatic handgun approached the officers“? He “violently resisted“? Looks like he wanted to “do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement”?! Are you kidding me? I have no words for how despicable and disgusting these lies are. We all saw the video, and these are shameful lies.

Lastly, what also stands out again is the pointlessness of it all. Here we find ourselves another situation which starts of relatively calm and then completely escalates in a matter of seconds because of ICE’s poor handling of the situation. Escalation. Disproportionate. I see zero reason why this man, afgter being shoved AND pepper-sprayed, had to be jumped by 7 officers and then shot.