Ten Bullets Kill U.S. citizen Alex Pretti *
Founded in 2007, ProPublica.org is a nonprofit Pulitzer Prize winning newsroom that investigates abuses of power. On Sunday it published the names of the two federal immigration agents involved in the fatal shooting of Minnesota protester Alex Pretti. ProPublica believes there are few investigations that deserve more sunlight and public scrutiny than this one, in which two masked agents fired 10 shots at Pretti as he lay on the ground after being pepper-sprayed. The Department of Justice said it is investigating the incident, but the names of the two agents have been withheld from Congress and from state and local law enforcement. The policy of shielding officers’ identities, particularly after a public shooting, is a stark departure from standard law enforcement protocols, according to lawmakers, state attorneys general and former federal officials. Such secrecy, in our view, deprives the public of the most fundamental tool for accountability.
GUEST BLOG /By J. David McSwane, writer ProPublica.org--The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.
The records viewed by ProPublica list Ochoa, 43, and Gutierrez, 35, as the shooters during the deadly encounter last weekend that left Pretti dead and ignited massive protests and calls for criminal investigations.
Both men were assigned to Operation Metro Surge, an immigration enforcement dragnet launched in December that sent scores of armed and masked agents across the city. CBP, which employs both men, has so far refused to release their names and has disclosed few other facts about the deadly incident, which came days after a different immigration agent shot and killed another Minneapolis protester, a 37-year-old mother of three named Renee Good.
Pretti’s killing, and the subsequent secrecy surrounding the agents involved, comes as the country confronts the consequences of President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown. The sweeps in cities across the country have been marked by scenes of violence, against immigrants and U.S. citizens, by agents allowed to hide their identities with masks — an almost unheard of practice in law enforcement. As a result, the public has been kept from one of the chief ways it has to hold officers involved in such altercations accountable: their identity.
Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have called for a transparent investigation into the killing of Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse working at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital. “We must have a transparent, independent investigation into the Minnesota shooting, and those responsible—no matter their title—must be held accountable,” Republican Sen. John Curtis of Utah wrote on X on Monday.
The agency sent a notice to some members of Congress on Tuesday acknowledging that two agents fired Glock pistols during the altercation that left Pretti dead.
That notice does not include the agents’ names. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees CBP, said the agents had been placed on leave after the Jan. 24 shooting. And after a week of protests and calls from lawmakers for a review, the Justice Department said Friday that its Civil Rights Division is investigating the shooting.
A DOJ spokesperson did not answer questions, including whether DHS has shared materials, such as body-camera footage, with its investigators.
Ochoa is a Border Patrol agent who joined CBP in 2018.
Gutierrez joined in 2014 and works for CBP’s Office of Field Operations. He is assigned to a special response team, which conducts high-risk operations like those of police SWAT units.
Records show both men are from South Texas. In the aftermath of the shooting, Gregory Bovino, who has orchestrated high-intensity immigration sweeps and arrests in a string of Democratic-led cities since early 2025, was removed from his role as Border Patrol commander at large and reassigned to his former post in El Centro, California.
A spokesperson for DHS declined to answer questions about the two agents and referred ProPublica to the FBI. The FBI declined to comment. ProPublica made several attempts to call Ochoa and Gutierrez but neither answered.
Ochoa, who goes by Jesse, graduated from the University of Texas-Pan American with a degree in criminal justice, according to his ex-wife, Angelica Ochoa. A longtime resident of the Rio Grande Valley, Ochoa had for years dreamed of working for the Border Patrol and finally landed a job there, she said.
By the time the couple split in 2021, he had become a gun enthusiast with about 25 rifles, pistols and shotguns, Angelica Ochoa said. DHS’ disclosure to Congress was drawn from an internal review of the agents’ body-camera footage, which has not been released to the public.
State investigators, meanwhile, have accused their federal counterparts of blocking them from investigating the shooting. FBI agents work at the scene of the Pretti shooting.
“We don’t have any information on the shooters,” a Minneapolis city spokesperson said. A spokesperson for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said Tuesday that his office also had “not been given the names, and we don’t have any new information on the investigation.”
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi Monday, accused the Justice Department of covering up evidence in both Pretti’s and Good’s killings. “DOJ has also blocked prosecutors and agents from cooperating with state law enforcement officials and prevented state officials from accessing evidence,” the letter said. Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told CNN on Sunday that immigration agents should not be masked. “They should not be anonymous. They should be identifiable. And they have to have rules of engagement that don’t allow them to terrorize and intimidate, harass and assault U.S. citizens and other people,” he said.
The notice to Congress said that the shooting happened when Pretti resisted arrest after officers were unable to get him and a female protester out of the street. The CBP officer “attempted to move the woman and Pretti out of the roadway. The woman and Pretti did not move,” the report reads. “CBP personnel attempted to take Pretti into custody. Pretti resisted CBP personnel’s efforts and a struggle ensued.” According to the report, one agent then yelled “He’s got a gun!” multiple times, and two others “discharged” their Glock pistols. In videos widely shared online, Pretti can be seen holding up a phone, documenting the movements of federal agents and officers as they roamed the streets of a popular food and arts district.
According to news reports, Pretti was concerned about the increasingly volatile siege of the city by federal agents. In the videos, a masked agent appears to knock a woman to the ground. Pretti comes to her aid, getting between them, at which point the officer deploys pepper spray at his face.
Two agents then grab Pretti and pull him to the ground, while more federal personnel pile on. During the struggle, the agents unleash a series of shots — approximately 10 — as onlookers scream.
Pretti was armed at the time of the encounter with a legally owned handgun, according to state and federal officials. Some analyses of bystander video appear to show a federal agent taking Pretti’s gun from his hip before the first shots were fired. The agents’ masks and the chaos of the altercation make it difficult to differentiate one from another.
Those videos appear to contradict the claims by Bovino and other officials, including DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, that Pretti had come to attack agents. “The agents attempted to disarm the individual, but he violently resisted,” Bovino said in a Jan. 25 news conference. “Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, a Border Patrol agent fired defensive shots.”
In the initial aftermath, Stephen Miller, a top Trump aide and a leading force behind the immigration enforcement operations, called Pretti “a would-be assassin.” But Miller changed tack later in the week when he said in a statement that CBP officers “may not have been following” protocol related to confronting bystanders.
Additional video has surfaced showing Pretti in another altercation with federal agents 11 days before he was killed. The video shows Pretti yelling at the agents, who get in an SUV and start to drive away. Pretti then kicks out the taillight of the vehicle and the agents, who wore protective masks, jump out and tackle him to the ground. It is unclear if any of the same agents were involved in both incidents.
Lauren Bonds, executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, said that many local and state police departments are “much more transparent” than CBP when officers shoot people. “More and more police departments are choosing to release bodycam footage or dashcam footage within a couple of days.” Gil Kerlikowske, a former CBP commissioner, told ProPublica that it’s difficult to draw conclusions from the chaos in bystander videos. Still, he said, the shooting might have been prevented.
Pretti’s attempt to help the woman knocked to the ground could have been seen as interfering with federal law enforcement, he said. But the decision by the officers to immediately use pepper spray created a chaotic scene that likely contributed to Pretti’s death. “The other agent could have said ‘don’t interfere’ or ‘stand back,’” Kerlikowske said. “Rather than move immediately to pepper spray, you can arrest the person.” It’s part of a pattern, he said, of federal officers jumping straight to use of force in situations that could have been de-escalated but instead create danger for both agents and their targets.
Pretti’s death, and the federal government’s characterization of the event, sparked immediate protests, spurring thousands of people to go out into frigid conditions in Minneapolis and other American cities. The shooting has also drawn intense criticism from political leaders, including Walz, who has promised his state’s law enforcement will conduct its own criminal investigation.
* New York Times image of both shooters added to this report by PillartoPost.org
