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CBP Says Agents Who Fatally Shot Alex Pretti Were Put on Leave Saturday

An agency spokesperson said this is the standard protocol.

A photo of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, who was fatally shot by a U.S. Border Patrol officer over the weekend, is displayed at the scene in Minneapolis.

A photo of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, who was fatally shot by federal agents over the weekend, is displayed at the scene in Minneapolis. Adam Gray/AP

By Jackie Llanos

January 28, 2026 02:55 PM

Two Border Patrol agents who fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday are on administrative leave, a Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said on Wednesday.

The agents have been on leave since Saturday per standard protocol, the spokesperson said, confirming a development first reported by The New York Times.

The status of the agents, who have not been publicly identified, had been in question for days. Gregory Bovino, the high-ranking official within the agency who oversaw the Minneapolis operation until this week, told CNN on Sunday that the agents had been moved to another city and would likely be assigned to administrative duties.

The agents fired around 10 shots at Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse who worked with veterans, after spraying him with a chemical irritant, pinning him to the ground and disarming him. Pretti had a permit to carry a gun. After the shooting, a BP agent advised the others he had possession of Pretti’s firearm, according to a preliminary review of the fatal incident CBP sent to Congress.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused Pretti of brandishing the gun. He held his phone in one hand and didn’t appear to pull out the gun, which an agent appears on video to take away seconds before his colleagues fired shots.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti wanted to “massacre” the federal agents.

Democrats and some Republicans have called for personnel changes after the shooting. President Donald Trump already dispatched his border czar, Tom Homan, to take over the deportation surge, and sent Bovino elsewhere.

Calls for the Trump administration to remove Noem from her post have mounted since the killing, with some Senate Republicans saying they no longer have confidence in her leadership.