White House advisor Stephen Miller said in a statement to CNN that the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents at the scene of the shooting of Alex Pretti “may not have been following” proper protocols. The statement of possible fault of the agents comes after Pretti was shot and killed on Saturday.
Miller said in a statement that the White House “provided clear guidance to DHS that the extra personnel that had been sent to Minnesota for force protection should be used for conducting fugitive operations to create a physical barrier between the arrest teams and the disruptors.”
“We are evaluating why the CBP team may not have been following that protocol,” he added in a statement.
Initial video footage of the shooting of Pretti on Saturday did not clearly display what took place as Pretti was resisting arrest. However, additional footage that was released later appeared to show an CBP agent disarming Pretti before he was shot. Authorities have said that an errant shot from Pretti’s gun may have led to agents firing on the anti-ICE agitator.
Miller had initially suggested that Pretti was out on the street to go after CBP officers as well as ICE agents with deadly force. He said that “initial statement from DHS was based on reports from CBP on the ground.”
Immediately following the shooting, a picture of the handgun Pretti had concealed was publicized and he was reported to be armed during the confrontation with officers. Federal authorities have been looking over the body camera footage to identify anything else that may have taken place leading up to the shooting.
Since the shooting, President Donald Trump has put Border Czar Tom Homan on the ground in Minnesota in order to lead operations while Border Patrol head Greg Bovino has been assigned elsewhere. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem met with Trump for two hours on Monday where the shooting was discussed.
