The BBC did an analysis of available video footage of the Alex Pretti shooting in Minneapolis. It looks like he may have had a legally registered gun in his possession, but was never holding it in his hands, and was disarmed after being pepper-sprayed and underneath a handful of agents (one of the agents clearly pulls something from the rear waistband of his pants, but it’s hard to see in the video and I do not believe ICE or DHS’s account of this story for a second) before one of the other agents shot at Pretti 10 times. Kristi Noem immediately held a press conference where she lied blatantly about the shooting, as did other Administration officials.

While I understand and respect the difficult job law enforcement officials do every day, and I see the obvious danger in trying to restrain a suspect who is laying face down, there are five agents surrounding Pretti while he’s on the ground. I don’t understand why these masked cowboys are rolling like they’re assaulting Fallujah instead of starting with nonlethal force, like real police are trained to do. This shit has got to be stopped.

Update: The DHS just testified to Congress that two agents fired their weapons in this incident. Oh, and the cosplay Nazi head of the Border Patrol got shitcanned. I guess that’s a good thing.