Since I wrote my piece yesterday on the latest shooting in Minneapolis, I have had a chance to view additional video. A couple of the questions I raised yesterday have been pretty much clarified.
First of all, Alex Pretti was not carrying a weapon in his hand when he first engaged with the agents. It was a cell phone.
Secondly, just a second or two before the first shot, one agent pulls a weapon from Pretti, which he immediately takes to a government vehicle.
What remains unresolved from the video (at least for me), is whether or not Pretti at any point tried to draw that weapon while on the ground with several agents on top of him. At that point, it is a scrum, and he is partially obscured by all the bodies. For a couple of seconds, we can see his right hand, which, for that brief period, is empty.
I also see that the agent who appears to fire the initial shot begins to draw his weapon before it is taken by the other agent. Was that the point when he first saw the weapon? It is easy to conclude that once the weapon was in the hands of another agent, there was no reason to fire, but again, we are talking about a space of 1-2 seconds.
I still have faith that the feds will do a thorough and honest investigation. At this point, I think it is too soon to say either that the shooting was legally justified or that this was an execution, as some are claiming.
I know from first-hand experience that decisions to shoot are made within a second. When it is all over, the investigators, the lawyers, and the judges may conclude that the agent had a reasonable fear for his/her safety or the safety of others, or that he/she made a mistake.
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