The Minnesota Department of Corrections says state court records show only misdemeanor-level traffic offenses from more than a decade ago.<\/b>
\nBorder Patrol agents were seeking a man with a criminal record when an agent fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, the Border Patrol commander said Sunday. But the Minnesota Department of Corrections says state court records show only misdemeanor-level traffic offenses from more than a decade ago.
Commander Greg Bovino said Sunday that Jose Huerta-Chuma has a record of domestic assault, intentional infliction of bodily harm and disorderly conduct. He had not been apprehended as of early Sunday afternoon.
Huerta-Chuma has never been in prison in Minnesota, according to a Saturday night statement from the Corrections Department.
\u201cDOC records further indicate that an individual by this name was previously held in federal immigration custody in a local Minnesota jail in 2018, during President Trump\u2019s first administration,\u201d the statement said. \u201cAny decisions regarding release from federal custody at that time would have been made by federal authorities. DOC has no information explaining why this individual was released.\u201d
Bovino said he didn\u2019t know of the 2018 case, but said Huerta-Chuman is in the U.S. illegally.
\u201cWe can go back and look and blame,\u201d Bovino said. \u201c\u2026 Right now, my mission is to take this individual off the street.\u201dBorder Patrol: Pretti was \u2018interfering\u2019
Bovino, who has recently been holding daily press conferences, started Sunday\u2019s by talking about \u201cchoices.\u201d
\u201cWhen politicians, community leaders and some journalists engage in that heated rhetoric we keep talking about, when they make the choice to vilify law enforcement, calling law enforcement names like \u2018Gestapo\u2019 or using the term \u2018kidnapping\u2019,\u201d Bovino said. \u201c\u2026 When you choose to listen to that, that is a choice, and there are consequences and actions there also.\u201d
\u201cI think we saw that yesterday, and those actions and choices can obviously have tragic consequences, bad outcomes,\u201d he continued. \u201cOutcomes that law enforcement never wants to see. Law enforcement never wants to see a bad consequence due to a poor choice.\u201d
Bovino said Sunday that he hasn\u2019t reached a conclusion about what happened, but added: \u201cWhat I do know is this individual was on that scene several minutes before that shooting, interfering with a lawful, legal, ethical law enforcement operation to arrest Jose Huerta-Chuma. And again, it\u2019s back to choices. \u2026 When someone makes the choice to come into an active law enforcement scene, interfere, obstruct, delay, or assault\u201d law enforcement \u201cand they bring a weapon to do that, that is a choice that that individual made.\u201d
Pretti, 37, was an intensive care nurse at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Minneapolis. Family members said he cared deeply about people, was upset by President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown in his city, and participated in protests following the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
\u201cThe sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting,\u201d his family said in a statement. They added that videos showed Pretti was not holding a gun when he was tackled by federal agents, but holding his phone with one hand and using the other to shield a woman who was being pepper-sprayed.ICE says violence against officers includes a finger partially bit off
Pretti had a permit to carry a gun, the Minneapolis police chief said Saturday.
The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus said in a Saturday statement: \u201cEvery peaceable Minnesotan has the right to keep and bear arms \u2014 including while attending protests, acting as observers, or exercising their First Amendment rights. These rights do not disappear when someone is lawfully armed, and they must be respected and protected at all times.\u201d
Meanwhile, ICE says there has been a \u201ccontinued uptick in violence\u201d against federal officers in Minnesota and across the U.S.
In Minneapolis on Saturday, \u201ca crowd of violent agitators tackled an ICE special agent,\u201d said Marcos Charles, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations executive associate director.
\u201cWhen one of our special response teams went to assist, a protester literally bit off part of that agent\u2019s finger,\u201d he said, adding that an arrest was made. The agent received medical attention at the scene and was treated at a hospital.<\/p>\n