Credit: CNN & X
Woman Who Filmed Alex Pretti’s ICE Killing Reveals Disturbing New Details
The woman who filmed the killing of Alex Pretti by ICE agents has spoken out about the disturbing incident.
Federal immigration enforcement operations have triggered unprecedented public outcry across the United States, with Minneapolis emerging as the epicenter of resistance against the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation tactics.
Daily scenes of masked ICE agents conducting raids in residential neighborhoods have sparked protests, community organizing efforts, and growing confrontations between federal authorities and ordinary citizens determined to protect their neighbors.
The Twin Cities have become ground zero for grassroots resistance, with residents forming mutual aid networks, conducting safety patrols near schools, and wearing whistles to alert others when federal agents arrive.
What began as peaceful observation has escalated into a dangerous standoff, with tragic consequences that have shocked the nation.
Now, the woman who filmed Pretti’s ICE killing, Stella Carson, has spoken out.
The Renee Good killing
The fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good earlier in January sent shockwaves through Minneapolis and beyond.
Good was killed by an ICE officer while sitting in her vehicle, proving to residents that the risk of simply witnessing federal operations had become deadly serious.
Her death transformed the dynamic on the streets, demonstrating that citizenship offered no protection from violence during immigration enforcement actions.
For many Minnesotans like Carlson, Good’s killing represented a turning point: a stark warning that observing and documenting ICE operations could cost them their lives.
Yet rather than intimidating the community into silence, Good’s death strengthened their resolve to bear witness to what was happening in their city.
The Alex Pretti shooting
On Saturday morning, January 24, 2026, another tragedy unfolded on Nicollet Avenue in south Minneapolis.
Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse who treated veterans at a VA hospital, was shot and killed by Border Patrol agents during what authorities described as a ‘targeted’ immigration enforcement operation.
Videos captured by multiple witnesses showed Pretti in the middle of the street, filming agents with his phone and directing traffic away from the confrontation.
When an agent pushed a woman to the ground and pepper-sprayed her, Pretti approached to help, asking if she was okay, words that would become his last.
Within seconds, he was tackled by multiple agents, pinned to the ground, and shot at least ten times in a span of five seconds.
Conflicting accounts of what happened
The Department of Homeland Security immediately painted Pretti as a threat.
Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, wearing what some described as a Nazi-style greatcoat, claimed Pretti approached agents with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun and ‘violently resisted’ attempts to disarm him.
Bovino suggested Pretti ‘wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement,’ though he provided no evidence for this characterization.
White House senior official Stephen Miller went further, calling Pretti a ‘domestic terrorist’ who ‘tried to assassinate federal law enforcement.’
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem echoed these claims, saying she didn’t ‘know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign,’ per the BBC.
However, eyewitness videos directly contradicted the administration’s narrative.
The footage showed Pretti holding only his phone, using his free hand to shield his face from pepper spray and protect women being attacked by agents.
No gun was visible in his hands. Video evidence revealed that an officer removed Pretti’s legally carried concealed weapon from its holster only after he had been tackled and pinned to the ground, seconds before other agents opened fire.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara confirmed that Pretti was a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry, whose only prior interactions with law enforcement involved parking tickets.
Pretti’s devastated parents called the administration’s characterization ‘sickening lies’ and demanded the truth be told about their kindhearted son.
Trump and administration statements
Initially, the Trump administration doubled down on its portrayal of Pretti as a dangerous extremist.
Multiple senior officials used their platforms to justify the killing, framing it as necessary self-defense against an armed assailant intent on harming federal officers.
However, as video evidence spread and bipartisan outrage mounted, the administration’s position began to shift.
By Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced he would seek to ‘de-escalate’ the situation in Minneapolis.
Reports emerged of a two-hour meeting between Trump and Secretary Noem as the administration scrambled to contain the political fallout from both the shooting itself and the false claims made about Pretti’s actions.
The reversal came too late to stop the damage.
The administration’s immediate rush to demonize a citizen who was legally exercising his rights, both to carry a firearm and to observe law enforcement, had already eroded public trust and intensified calls for accountability.
The aftermath
The public pressure following Pretti’s killing proved impossible for the administration to ignore.
Within days, Bovino, the Border Patrol official who had led the enforcement surge in Minneapolis and several other American cities, was pulled out of Minnesota.
The decision represented a rare retreat for an administration that had consistently defended its immigration tactics, no matter how controversial.
Local leaders, who had been demanding federal agents leave their city since the operations began, viewed the withdrawal as a partial victory, though one purchased at an unbearable cost.
Two Minneapolis residents, both 37 years old, both US citizens, had been killed by federal agents in their own neighborhoods within weeks of each other.
Pretti witness speaks out
The woman who captured the most crucial video evidence of Pretti’s killing came forward this week to share her account with CNN‘s Anderson Cooper.
Stella Carlson, wearing the pink jacket that made her instantly recognizable in other videos of the incident, had been on her way to paint children’s faces at a church event that Saturday morning when she heard the warning whistles that have become ubiquitous in Minneapolis.
Carlson, who had spent three weeks learning about mutual aid and participating in grassroots efforts to warn neighbors of federal immigration actions, immediately understood the risk she was taking.
“I know every time I leave my vehicle or leave my house and I put that whistle around my neck, I know because of Renee Good, the risk,” she told Cooper. “I think we all knew after that happened, it is now at that point, and it could be any of us.”
When she drove down Nicollet Avenue and saw what she described as a ‘brawl in the street,’ she thought of Good and decided to document what was happening.
She noticed Pretti directing traffic and recognized his behavior: “It felt like somebody in my opinion, in my background, who was doing a risk assessment and found his place in this moment to be useful.”
Disturbing details revealed
Carlson’s interview revealed harrowing details that went beyond what the videos alone could convey.
She didn’t even realize Pretti had been carrying a gun until after he was shot, and said she wouldn’t have gotten so close if she had known he was armed, a fact that further undermines claims he was brandishing the weapon.
But the most disturbing revelations came in Carlson’s description of Pretti’s final moments and what happened immediately after.
“I remember him arching his back and his head rolling back,” she said.
Having previously witnessed deaths in hospice settings, she knew instantly that Pretti would not survive.
What followed shocked her even more. “I knew he was gone because I watched it,” Carlson explained.
“And then they come over to try to perform some type of medical aid by ripping his clothes open with scissors, and then maneuvering his body around like a rag doll, only to discover that it could be because they wanted to count the bullet wounds to see how many they got, like he’s a deer.”
The callousness she described, agents treating Pretti’s body with contempt rather than providing genuine medical assistance, painted a chilling picture of the mindset of those involved in the shooting.
Carlson credited the collective action of her community over the previous three weeks with giving her the courage to stay at the scene and continue filming.
“If it wasn’t for the collective actions over the past three weeks, I don’t know if I would have been able to stay that long,” she said.
“But I knew that this was a moment, and we all have to be brave and we all have to take risks, and we’re all going to be given moments to make that decision.”
Despite providing a sworn statement about what she witnessed, Carlson said that as of Tuesday, she had not been contacted by federal law enforcement.
She expressed little confidence in any federal investigation, instead placing her faith in ‘various representatives throughout our country who are trying to do the right thing and make sure that justice is served.’
Carlson’s video and her willingness to come forward despite the obvious risks has become a powerful counter-narrative to the administration’s attempts to justify Pretti’s killing.
“We all have to be brave,” Carlson said, encapsulating the spirit of resistance that has emerged in Minneapolis and beyond.
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