Alex Pretti was known to the feds and suffered a broken rib in a violent confrontation with agents a week before Border Patrol officers killed him in Minneapolis, according to a report.
Pretti, an ICU nurse, told a pal he saw ICE agents chasing what he described as a family on foot, and stopped his car during the earlier incident around a week before he was shot last Saturday, CNN reported.
He said he pulled over in his car and began shouting and blowing on a whistle, at which point he was tackled by five agents, the source said.
Pretti claimed that one of the agents had left him with a broken rib after leaning on his back, the friend told CNN.
“That day, he thought he was going to die,” the source said, adding that Pretti had been released by agents at the scene.
Federal immigration officers had documented details about Pretti, along with other anti-ICE protesters in Minneapolis in recent weeks, CNN reported.
A memo sent this month to agents dispatched to the city asked them to “capture all images, license plates, identifications, and general information on hotels, agitators, protestors, etc., so we can capture it all in one consolidated form,” the network reported.
Although Pretti’s name was known to federal agents, according to the source, it isn’t known whether his information had been shared via the new intake form.
It also isn’t clear whether Pretti recognized or was recognized by the federal agents he confronted in Minneapolis on Saturday.
Video appears to show him being wrestled to the ground by agents before one of them removes Pretti’s gun from his waistband and another fatally shoots um.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has denied that the agency has a database of alleged domestic terrorists.
“We do, of course, monitor and investigate and refer all threats, assaults and obstruction of our officers to the appropriate law enforcement,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told CNN in relation to a separate incident involving a federal agent in Maine.
FBI Director Kash Patel has also said that his agency is investigating encrypted group chats on the app Signal, which are reportedly used by activists to share information about ICE activities.
Such groups “create a scenario that illegally entraps and puts law enforcement in harm’s way,” Director Patel warned during an appearance on a conservative podcast Monday.
