A New Video of Alex Pretti Kicking a Federal Agent's Car Is Circulating Online — Is It Real?

For better or worse, putting a victim on a pedestal is a natural human reaction to a hideous crime. If you watch enough true crime documentaries or listen to enough podcasts in the genre, you often hear one way in which victims are described. They always lit up every room. As the saying goes, you shouldn't speak ill of the dead, but good-washing them does no one any favors. We all contain multitudes.

In January 2026, a Veterans Affairs ICU nurse was fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis, Minn. Alex Pretti was documenting an arrest when he stopped to help a woman who had been pushed down by an agent. Multiple videos recorded by several eyewitnesses captured the final moments of his life. We have since learned a lot about Pretti, who by all accounts was a good person. A few days after he was killed, a new video showed the world a different side of him. Is it AI? Here's what we know.

Footage of Pretti was shared by The News Movement, which filmed an altercation between the nurse and federal agents on Jan. 13, 2026. They uploaded it to Instagram on Jan. 28, explaining in the caption that the footage is part of a documentary on ICE activity in Minneapolis. In it, a man who looks like Pretti is yelling at the back of an SUV, before he spits on it. As the vehicle begins driving away, Pretti kicks it, causing the passenger side taillight to break off.

The vehicle stops, allowing the agents to get out. One approaches Pretti and grabs him. After two more agents join in, Pretti is thrown to the ground. More agents approach with tear gas guns drawn as Pretti struggles on the ground. Suddenly, tear gas fills the air. About three agents continue holding Pretti down before releasing him. "The man in our footage is wearing a similar outfit to what Pretti was wearing on the day he was killed," reads text over the video.

"I think we know what AI looks like," commented one person under the video. "Even if this did occur, this doesn't justify his murder." Another person said the way the camera zoomed in looked very odd. "This doesn’t feel right," they wrote. "My gut is telling me it’s not real." The News Movement said in the caption that their footage was analyzed by the BBC, "whose facial recognition technology confirmed his identity to a 97 percent degree of accuracy."

A person close to the incident told The Associated Press that it is indeed Pretti in the video. After this happened, Pretti told his parents about the altercation. Steve Schleicher, a Minneapolis-based attorney representing the Pretti family, said this new video does not change anything about his killing.

"A week before Alex was gunned down in the street — despite posing no threat to anyone — he was violently assaulted by a group of (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents," said Schleicher in a statement. "Nothing that happened a full week before could possibly have justified Alex’s killing at the hands of ICE on Jan. 24." It's unclear if the officers involved in the earlier incident were also present on the day Pretti was killed.