Videos published on Wednesday appeared to show Alex Pretty kicking an immigration agent’s car before being thrown to the ground during a confrontation less than two weeks before he was shot and killed in Minneapolis.
The News Movement it was the outlet that caught the incident on January 13. She said in an X post that “it appears to be Alex Pretti interacting with federal immigration agents” and that he had the clip analyzed by the BBC, “whose facial recognition technology confirmed his identification to a degree of 97% accuracy.”
The BBC confirmed the authenticity of the video in their news broadcast at 10 pm GMT. Reporter Rose Atkins said the man in the video “has the same coat, facial hair and gait as Alex Pretti and a facial recognition tool suggests a 97% match. We see him shouting abuse at the agents.” Separately, a spokesperson for the BBC confirmed to Mediaite that they have reviewed the footage and verified that its team used facial recognition technology on the video.
You can watch the BBC footage below, or watch the footage on their website (the relevant portion starts at the :50 mark):
A narrator for the video said TNM’s team — made up of journalists Dallin Mello and This is Ming — received a tip that federal agents were blocking a road in Minneapolis around 10:15 a.m. When they arrived, they recorded a man who looked like Pretti spitting on a Ford SUV and yelling at immigration agents that they were “f*cking trash!”
The man who looked like Pretti was wearing a black hat, a brown coat, and had a beard; the narrator noted that it was similar to the clothing worn by Pretti when he was killed on January 24th. He then crossed the right rear light by waving it twice and swung his middle finger at the vehicle.
At that point, “An agent then exited the vehicle, grabbed him, and pushed him to the ground,” the voiceover said.
The man who appeared to be Pretti could be seen trying to escape from an agent before another agent caught him and threw him both.
“During the altercation, the agents fired tear gas and pepper balls into the crowd,” the narrator continued. “They continued to hold the man down before retreating and leaving.”
The narrator said there appears to be a gun “visible on his waistband” in the footage.
The footage quickly went viral on X shortly after it was posted on Wednesday. Republican communications consultant Steve Guest posted the clip and it attracted 1.4 million views in its first two hours. He incorrectly said it was a “bombshell report from the BBC” – a mistake made by many other users.
“Important context: Pretti was not a peaceful protester,” Guest added.
Greg Price — to list a “Rapid Response Manager” for the President Of Donald Trump White House as one of his jobs on LinkedIn — also shared the clip.
“Alex Pretti spits on a federal agent and then throws his taillight in footage released by the BBC from 11 days before his death,” he posted.
Megyn Kelly shared the video and said it showed that Pretti was “ready for another confrontation with the Border Patrol, who was searching, harassing and terrorizing.”
She continued, “He was victimized by THEM. His crimes are on tape. He was reckless, and it cost him his life. Find another boy, Leftists who love lawlessness.”
“Wow,” Team Pool he said in his caption for the video. He wondered if Pretti could “have been known to the agents as they tried to arrest him?”
Ex-The Daily Wire a reporter Ryan Saavedra shared it too.
And so did Turning Point USA contributor Savannah Hernandez.
The video comes a few days after President Trump said that his administration is “reviewing everything” about the shooting.
Watch above via The News Movement on YouTube.
——
David Gilmour contributed reporting.
The post TIKIR: The BBC confirms the Authenticity of a Viral Video that Appears to show Alex Pretti 11 days before the shooting of the agents’ car that kicks appeared first on Mediaite .