WFIR’s Clark Palmer recently spoke with the President of the Virginia Citizens Defense League Phillip Van Cleave and got his thoughts on the situation:
Full Statement from the Virginia Citizens Defense League: VCDL is calling for a complete and INDEPENDENT investigation of the shooting of a CHP holder, Alex Pretti, in Minnesota and the result released to the public. We do not want an agency investigating itself, as that does not give a lot of credence to the outcome.
There are a lot of videos of the event captured by citizens and some of it appears to be very damning of the CBP officers involved in the shooting. One video shows Pretti facing downward with nothing in his hands as he is shot in the back. Various videos show an officer taking Pretti’s gun out of his holster and walking away with it just before Pretti is shot.
One video captures the events leading up to the shooting. The video showed that Pretti was not attacking CBP officers but was merely standing between them and a woman they had violently thrown to the ground, while Pretti recorded the officers on his phone. (I hope Pretti’s video is released.)
The various videos directly contradict the rush-to-judgement statements given by:
Assistant United States Attorney for the Central District of California, Bill Essayli, who said, “If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you.” [Oh, baloney. Gun owners, me included, approach officers while openly carrying or concealed carrying all the time. We have a right to approach officers while legally armed. And Officers don’t panic when we do so. I guess Essayli’s education didn’t cover the Constitution.]
DHS Director, Kristi Noem said:
“…an individual approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun. The officers attempted to disarm the suspect, but the armed suspect violently resisted. Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, an agent fired defensive shots.” [Director Noem, who I thought more highly of, should not have made such a definitive statement before she knew the facts. Pretti only had a cellphone in his hands when he came into contact with CBD agents. His handgun was concealed, so CBD clearly weren’t trying to disarm him when they started wrestling with him. CBD didn’t yell, “GUN!” until they had him on the ground and the gun had already been removed from his holster.]
“I don’t know of any peaceful protesters that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign.” [More disappointment from Noem. VCDL had 50,000 armed people show up in 2020 and at least 80 to 100 show up in 2026 to protest gun control in Richmond. EVERYONE was peaceful. And this is the same across the country at rallies and protests where law-abiding citizens are armed.]
DHS claimed initially that Pretti was armed with the intent to “massacre law enforcement.” [Where, exactly, did DHS come up with evidence to even remotely justify that claim? The fact the Pretti had a legally owned and legally carried firearm and an extra magazine? Almost everyone carries a spare magazine! Noem needs to educate her staff on making responsible statements based on facts, not conjecture or prejudice.]
FBI Director Kash Patel 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 leading the charge to arrest those.” [More jumping to conclusions without looking at the evidence. Video shows it was CBD that “touched” Pretti, not the other way around.]
DHS also said that Pretti approached Border Patrol agents while armed with a handgun and “violently resisted” when they attempted to disarm him, leading to the shooting. The problem with that statement is that Petti’s gun was apparently concealed, so CBD had no idea he was armed. They discovered the gun after they had him on the ground, beating him to a pulp. An officer removed the gun from Pretti’s holster, and walked away with it just before someone yelled, “GUN!” and Pretti was shot. If they were trying to disarm him, why didn’t CBP yell, “GUN!” when they started to wrestle with him and not wait until after his holstered gun was removed from him? Immediately after the shooting another video show CBD officers noticing that Pretti didn’t have a gun at all, then finally figured out that the other CBD officer had taken it off Pretti before the shooting.
We’ll see what the investigation reveals, but if this turns out to be either murder, or at least manslaughter, the officers involved should be arrested and tried in a court of law.
The post Virginia Citizens Defense League calls for investigation into killing of Alex Pretti first appeared on News/Talk 960-AM & FM-107.3 WFIR.
