A doctor who witnessed the brutal shooting of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents says that the agents didn’t even bother trying to save the victim’s life as he bled out on the ground — because they were too busy counting the bullet wounds.
The harrowing testimony, detailed in a sworn court filing, contradicts key details in the accounts given by the Department of Homeland Security and top officials in the Trump administration, which insist that the 37-year-old ICU nurse threatened agents and attempted to reach for his gun during an altercation in Minneapolis on Saturday.
According to the witness, a 29-year-old physician who isn’t identified by name in the court document, Pretti was yelling at the agents but did not attack them or brandish any sort of weapon before the situation escalated fatally.
“Suddenly, an ICE agent shoved him to the ground,” the witness said, referring to the Border Patrol officers. “My view of the altercation was partially obstructed, but after a few seconds, I saw at least four ICE agents point guns at the man. I then saw the agents shoot the man at least six or seven times.”
When he rushed to the scene and told Border Patrol he was a physician and wanted to attend to the victim, the agents demanded to see his physician’s license — “which I obviously didn’t have,” he said.
Shockingly, he noticed that “none of the ICE agents who were near the victim were performing CPR” despite him clearly being in “critical condition,” so the doctor continued his protests.
“Normally, I would not have been so persistent, but as a physician, I felt a professional and moral obligation to help this man,” he said, “especially since none of the agents were helping him.”
Once the agents finally let him through, the first red flag that jumped out at him was that the victim was lying on his side.
“That is not standard practice when a victim has been shot. Checking for a pulse and administering CPR is standard practice,” he said. “Instead of doing either of those things, the ICE agents appeared to be counting his bullet wounds.”
The doctor checked for a pulse, found that Pretti had none, and immediately began CPR. According to the physician, Pretti had at least three bullet wounds in his back, another on his upper left chest, and possibly one on his neck. The doctor left after EMS arrived at the scene and took charge.
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