The death of 37‑year‑old intensive care nurse Alex Jeffrey Pretti, who was shot by federal immigration agents during a January 24 operation in Minneapolis, has been ruled a homicide by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office. Pretti was killed during a street encounter with federal officers assigned to an immigration enforcement initiative, sparking protests and calls for an independent investigation.
Government records identify Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa, 43, and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez, 35, as the two federal agents who fired their weapons during the incident. Both men are CBP employees from South Texas; Ochoa joined the agency in 2018, while Gutierrez, a member of a special response team that handles high‑risk operations, joined in 2014.
The Department of Homeland Security has stated that officers were attempting to arrest Pretti after he allegedly interfered with their operation. Witness accounts and widely circulated videos, however, show Pretti filming federal agents on his phone, moving to assist a person who had been shoved and pepper‑sprayed, and then being forced to the ground before multiple shots are fired.
Both Ochoa and Gutierrez have been placed on standard administrative leave while the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division conducts a federal review of the shooting. No criminal charges have been filed, and local and federal investigators have not yet released a detailed public timeline of the events that led to Pretti’s death.
