Minneapolis shooting: FBI Director Kash Patel defends Border Patrol and Kristi Noem after Alex Pretti was shot dead

FBI Director Kash Patel defended the border patrol’s tactics and DHS chief Kristi Noem over Saturday’s shooting death of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by a border patrol agent in Minneapolis during an interview on Fox's Sunday Morning Futures.

Patel defended the border patrol’s tactics and questioned Pretti’s motives, saying, “Secretary [Kristi] Noem stated perfectly, you do not get to attack law enforcement officials in this country without any repercussions,” and adding, “You do get to do that in Minnesota, L.A., or anywhere else.”




Patel also said, “No one who wants to be peaceful shows up at a protest with a firearm that is loaded with two full magazines. That is not a peaceful protest, and you do not get to touch law enforcement. You do that anywhere, this FBI is going to be following — leading the charge to arrest those.”



Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo disputed Patel’s argument and asked, “But how was he threatening Border Patrol?!” She added, “You’ve collected the evidence, you said, right? You have the handgun in your possession. And how was he using that handgun in terms of threatening Border Patrol? What was the threat? He had his camera, right? He was filming it.”

After the pushback, Patel said he would defer to other agencies and prosecutors, stating, “That’s something that I let the DHS and the prosecutors — because they are the ones investigating that case, I don’t want to stylize that evidence.” He added, “But I trust the men and women on the ground who are trained professionals to only use it when it’s absolutely necessary. And I trust Secretary Noem’s leadership and DHS, and HSI to do the right thing, as they’ve always done in these scenarios," Mediaite reported.

Bartiromo then asked when border patrol agents spotted a weapon on Pretti, saying, “Kristi Noem said that the individual approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9-millimeter semi-automatic handgun,” and asking, “Was the gun visible, or did Border Patrol see the gun after they shot him?”

Patel declined to comment further on the investigation, saying, “Again, all those pieces of the investigation are being led by DHS and HSI, and I don’t wanna comment on their ongoing investigation,” and Bartiromo replied, “I understand.”

Bartiromo pressed Patel on what evidence he could share, asking, “But you have the evidence. What can you tell us about the evidence you collected?”

Patel said the evidence was sent for forensic examination, stating, “It’s sent to our FBI laboratory, where it’ll be finger-pristed,” and adding, “We’ll use ballistics examination toolkits to see if any casings were fired. And we’ll examine all the casings that were found on the scene."