Minneapolis police chief challenges federal account of Alex Pretti shooting

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara is openly pushing back on Homeland Security’s description of the shooting of Alex Pretti.

He says the “videos speak for themselves” and that some of the statements coming from federal officials are “deeply concerning.”

Mr. O’Hara said Mr. Pretti seemed to be doing two things he was legally allowed to do: record law enforcement and carry a permitted firearm.

“It appears that he was present, exercising his First Amendment rights to record law enforcement activity and also exercising his Second Amendment rights to lawfully be armed in a public space in the city,” he said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “So, I think, very obviously, there are serious questions that are being raised.”

He also pushed back hard on Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s claim that Mr. Pretti had “brandished” a weapon or assaulted officers. “I do not have any evidence that I’ve seen that suggests that the weapon was brandished,” he said. “You have a Second Amendment right in the United States to possess a firearm, and there are some restrictions around that in Minnesota.”

According to him, nothing so far shows Pretti violated those restrictions. “Everything that we see, that we are aware of, shows that he did not violate any of those restrictions… He is not a convicted felon, and he is someone that did have a permit for the handgun to carry it.”

Mr. O’Hara also said the sudden arrival of thousands of federal immigration officers has overwhelmed his 600‑officer department and strained what used to be a strong working relationship with federal agencies.

The issue, he said, isn’t enforcement itself — it’s how it’s being carried out.