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False Claim of the Week: Alex Pretti Pulled a Gun on Federal Agents Before They Fatally Shot Him in Minneapolis

NewsGuard’s “False Claim of the Week” highlights a claim from NewsGuard’s False Claim Fingerprints proprietary database of provably false claims and their debunks. The claim that 37-year-old Minneapolis man Alex Pretti pulled a gun on federal agents before they fatally shot him in January 2026 is NewsGuard’s “False Claim of the Week” due to its widespread appearance across social media platforms and websites, its high engagement levels, and the high-profile nature of the sources promoting it. Those three factors, as well as both its significant subject matter and potential for harm, makes it our False Claim of the Week.

By Chiara Vercellone

What happened: Trump administration officials and conservative social media users falsely claimed this week that 37-year-old Alex Pretti, who was shot and killed by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis during a Jan. 24, 2026, altercation, pulled a gun on the agents, thus justifying the killing.

A closer look: The Department of Homeland Security said in an X post on Jan. 24 that Pretti “approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun” and that “this...

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