STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.

What We Know

Does video show a federal immigration agent taking a gun away from Alex Pretti two seconds before another agent began shooting Pretti? A frame-by-frame look at the first viral video of the incident shared on social media does show a federal agent in a gray coat reaching down with his right hand and then standing up with something in his right hand that could be a handgun. Later video from an angle to the left of the first video, more clearly shows the agent in the gray coat walking away with a gun. Gunshots are then heard, and that agent turns his head toward the shooting. A third video, filmed from the opposite direction, showed the agent with the handgun had already turned and left the scuffle before gunshots were heard.

The video was widely shared online in the hours after the January 24, 2026, incident on a Minneapolis sidewalk, but the short clip slowing the video down was shared a post (archived here) with the caption:

BREAKING: The man killed by federal agents in Minneapolis was literally just standing there RECORDING them.

Witness video shows him filming, not attacking. Minutes later he's on the ground being shot.

They escalated a camera into a corpse.
That's not "law enforcement." That's an execution.

This is the first frame of the full video intially shared on X.com:

(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of video posted to X by @gremloe.)

Video #2, posted on X by @Gumm006

The video from the second angle, posted on X by @Gumm006 (archived here), more clearly shows the gun in the agent's hand. Lead Stories has reached out to @Gumm006 for information about the video and will update this fact check when they reply.

In the @Gumm006 video at time code :34, the agent in grey is seen crouched over the back of the man under the scrum of agents, then stepping away with a gun in his right hand. Here is a sequence of screengrabs from the video:

(Image source: Lead Stories screenshots of video posted at https://x.com/i/status/2015156943384428844.)

Video #3, posted on X by @ryangrimm, a reporter at DropSiteNews

Taken from the other side of the scuffle from the other two videos analyzed in this fact check, The DropSiteNews video (archived here) shows one agent drawing a gun just as the agent in grey is turning away from the scuffle. One second later at 1:02 of the DropSiteNews video, there is a sound like a gunshot, followed at timecode 1:03 by three in quick succession, then a single gunshot sound at 1:04, immediately followed by what sounds like five shots beginning at about 1:05. Here is a sequence of screenshots, cropped to just the scuffle, showing the sequence.

(Image source: Lead Stories screenshots, with timecode position, from video posted to X at ryangrim/status/2015132217878384791.)

DropSiteNews describes itself as a non-aligned investigative news organization, which is set up to receive tips and video from witnesses. On Jan. 24, it posted video that appears to have been taken from the position of the woman in pink seen in other videos.

The DropSiteNews video is a total of 2 minutes, 50 seconds. It begins with Petti walking into the street, apparently filming with his phone camera, and directing traffic as cars approach him.

An agent from a black SUV stopped in the street exits the car. At time code :35 of the DropSiteNews video, an agent crosses the street and pushes a woman seen at the front of a white SUV. Petti, in tan pants and a hooded brown jacket, can be seen intervening,

At time code :37 Petti can be seen turning away and raising his left arm to block the agent's pepper spray or other chemical spray, still holding in his right hand what appears to be the phone he was filming with at the beginning of the video:

(Image source: Lead Stories screenshots of video posted by @ryangrim on X.)

Original viral video of the shooting, posted on X by @gremloe

The @gremloe video is 39 seconds long. This X post of it slows down and rewinds a segment about 15 seconds into the video, showing the agent wearing a gray coat who bends down and reaches toward the man on the ground with his right hand:

It appears from zooming in just moments before ICE/CBP shoot yet another US citizen, one agent removes the victims firearm from his waste holster.

The victim was UNARMED when he was shot multiple times.

This is a state execution. Again. pic.twitter.com/bJKnijPq3H

-- Austin MacNamara (@gremloe) January 24, 2026

Lead Stories captured this screenshot at timevode :16. The agent in the gray coat is bent over, with his right hand near the man on the ground.

(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of X.com)

At :19, the agent starts to stand up and there is something visible in his right hand.

(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of X.com)

A fraction of a second later, still at the :19 timecode, there is another view of the possible gun.

(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of X.com)

A few frames later, another look at his hand.

(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of X.com)

At the :20 mark, the agent in the gray coat is seen walking away with something in his left hand.

(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of X.com)

At :21, just as first shot is fired, the man in gray coat quickly turns his head toward the scuffle.

(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of X.com)

Updates:

• 2026-01-25T00:35:04Z 2026-01-25T00:35:04Z
  Adds screenshots and analysis from video from third angle, posted to X by @ryanGrim of DropSiteNews.
• 2026-01-24T22:08:30Z 2026-01-24T22:08:30Z
  Updated to add screenshots from video from second angle, posted to X by @Gumm006.
• 2026-01-24T21:47:40Z 2026-01-24T21:47:40Z
  Updated to add Alex Pretti's name.