I am a former police officer and a private investigator with over fifty years experience specializing in use of force cases. This is not ideology. This is experience.
I had planned to wait for the official reports. They will have more video footage and more witness statements. But the essential facts already seem clear. This analysis is based on incomplete information, and it does not need to be perfect to be accurate.
Alex Pretti opposed ICE and deportation policy. Fine. He had every right to protest. What he did not have was the right to riot.
He attended a protest that devolved into violence. Pretti armed himself with a legally carried 9mm SIG Sauer pistol and spare magazines. Most people who carries semi automatic pistols also carry an extra magazine or two. There is nothing unusual about that . Carrying a gun was not the problem. Deciding to physically intervene in an arrest was.
ICE agents were lawfully arresting a woman who had become physically aggressive. Pretti chose to insert himself into the arrest. That decision turned him from protester to felon in real time.
Officers moved to detain him. He resisted. During the struggle, officers discovered he was armed while committing the instant felony. At that moment, every officer on scene had to assume the worst, because assuming otherwise gets people killed.
Someone yelled “gun.” The seized firearm discharged during the chaos. Whether from poor weapon control, accidental trigger contact, or a mechanical issue is irrelevant. A shot went off during a violent struggle.
Officers reasonably believed Pretti had fired the shot. The response was immediate and predictable. “Sympathetic fire” by two officers. Multiple rounds.
This was a non-negligent accidental shooting caused by Pretti’s reckless, unlawful conduct. Fighting federal officers while armed is not civil disobedience. It is suicide by decision-making.
Pretti earned the outcome. Sympathy belongs to the officers forced into a millisecond survival decision.
Mass enforcement operations are inherently dangerous when political leaders encourage disorder and then step aside. The true responsibility lies with those who dismantled border enforcement, encouraged illegal entry, and turned law enforcement into a political punching bag.
ICE agents followed the law. The administration is enforcing the law voters demanded be enforced.
We all have the right to protest. We have the right to bear arms. We do not have the right to block roads, assault officers, destroy property, or interfere with arrests.
Once violence begins, it is no longer a protest. It is a riot. Local Democrat officials allowed those riots to grow. Legacy media cashed in. Alex Pretti made his choices. The consequences followed.
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