Footage disputes claims in Minneapolis federal shooting (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Alex Pretty was killed by federal agents on Saturday the 24th of January. He was shot in Nicola Avenue in Minneapolis, less than three weeks after Renee Good was also shot and killed by federal agents in the city. In the hours after Alex Pretty's death, the Trump administration offered this explanation.

[00:00:22] Speaker 2: This looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.

[00:00:30] Speaker 1: With that in mind, let's look at the available evidence about what happened that Saturday morning. The first video we have starts more than six minutes before the shooting. A woman is recording and she sees federal agents approach a store called Glamdol Donuts. With her is a man who's on the phone. More agents arrive. They're there to arrest a suspected illegal immigrant. They're about 25 meters from where Alex Pretty will be killed. Less than a minute after that, the man starts verbally abusing the agents. The man continues to shout. And then three minutes and 23 seconds into this video, we see Alex Pretty. Soon afterwards, he's being pushed back by an agent. Do not touch me, he shouts. The same moment is captured in another video, which starts a little earlier. Here's Alex Pretty in the road, holding a phone and face to face with the federal agent. Again, we see the agent push him and Alex Pretty steps backwards. We can clearly see he has a phone in one hand, nothing in the other. Before we continue to assess the video evidence, keep in mind what the Trump administration said about two things. Alex Pretty's intentions and the nature of the protest in the street. We were told Alex Pretty was an assassin who tried to murder federal agents. We were told he intended to massacre law enforcement. And we were told this.

[00:01:56] Speaker 2: This is a violent riot when you have someone showing up with weapons and are using them to assault law enforcement officers.

[00:02:03] Speaker 1: The continuous video we have of the minutes before the shooting doesn't show anything that supports this. Here's another video. Alex Pretty is on the right. Once more, he has nothing in one hand, a phone in the other. Nearby are two people interacting with an agent. One has an orange rucksack, one has a brown coat. We see them both again in multiple videos, including this one that shows the moments leading up to Alex Pretty being shot. Let's pause the video here. This is 33 seconds before the first shot is fired. An agent pushes the person with the brown coat, then pushes Alex Pretty, then pushes the person with the orange rucksack who falls to the ground. Before continuing, let's hear the Trump administration's account of the incident.

[00:02:48] Speaker 2: An individual approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a nine millimeter semi-automatic handgun. The officers attempted to disarm this individual, but the armed suspect reacted violently.

[00:03:00] Speaker 1: There's no evidence that at this point the agents knew that Alex Pretty was armed. We see him step between the person with the orange rucksack and an agent. For a brief moment, he touches the agent near the waist. He's then pepper sprayed. We're now 27 seconds before the first shot is fired. He raises a hand as if to block the spray and then turns away, bending down as if to help the person who the agent had pushed to the floor. The agent grabs his arm and starts to pull him away. As more agents arrive, they wrestle Alex Pretty to the ground. This is nine seconds before he's shot. President Trump referred to Alex Pretty as a gunman. That description normally suggests someone who is actively using a gun. None of the videos we've analysed show Alex Pretty holding a gun. Throughout these moments, he has a phone in his right hand and appears to be filming. As we return to the video, Alex Pretty is now surrounded by eight agents. He's on his knees, bent over. We can clearly see his hands on the floor and he's struggling against being held down. One agent repeatedly strikes in the direction of his head. Let's highlight another agent in a grey jacket. Note that his right hand is empty. He reaches down and removes what appears to be a gun from Alex Pretty's waistband. He then steps back and the gun is clearly visible in his right hand. That gun appears to match this weapon, which was shown in an image shared by the authorities. And there are several things to note here. Carrying this type of gun is legal in Minnesota with a valid permit. The police say Alex Pretty had one. The FBI director Kash Patel has implied it's illegal to bring a firearm loaded with multiple magazines to any sort of protest. But it's not. In Minnesota, it's not illegal to bring a loaded firearm to a protest. The head of the FBI got that completely wrong. Indeed, in the US, having a gun in your belt is not, in and of itself, considered a threat. As we saw, Alex Pretty's gun was removed. There's been no suggestion he was armed beyond this point. And as the gun is taken, we hear voices shouting. At this point, let's highlight another agent too. This one. He'll go on to fire the vast majority of the shots. But look, as other agents struggle with Alex Pretty, this agent is facing away. He then turns towards Alex Pretty. At this point, he has a clear view of the agent in the grey jacket who's about to remove the gun. The agent we're now focused on is wearing a black beanie hat, a black face covering and sunglasses. He's facing towards Alex Pretty. We can't say definitively he sees the gun being removed, but he's facing in that direction. And the agent in the grey jacket turns away, holding Alex Pretty's gun. At almost exactly the same time, the agent in the black beanie hat draws his weapon. And the first shot is fired. We can see that he fired the second, third and fourth shots. Alex Pretty collapses to the ground. The agent stepped back, standing clear of his motionless body. Another agent draws his gun and also pointed at Alex Pretty. More shots are fired. None of the other agents can be seen to draw their firearms at any point. The agent who fired the first shots can be seen firing the final three. In total, ten shots were fired in five seconds. And the legality of this action is under scrutiny.

[00:06:24] Speaker 3: It is unconstitutional to use lethal force against someone who does not pose an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm to another person.

[00:06:34] Speaker 1: 25 seconds after the final shot, agents kneel by Alex Pretty's body. One gestures towards another for something on the back of his body armour. One minute and 13 seconds after the final shot, we hear the agents talking about Alex Pretty's fire. And another agent arrives, slipping on the ice as he does. And there's an exchange with someone in the car where this video is being filmed. We don't need that. It's a medical emergency.

[00:07:01] Speaker 2: Yeah, it is caused by you, you ****.

[00:07:04] Speaker 1: To reiterate, none of the videos we've analysed show Alex Pretty holding a gun. There's no available evidence that he was an assassin who tried to murder federal agents. No available evidence he intended to massacre law enforcement, nor that it was a violent riot. No available evidence that this was an individual who arrived at this scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement. In these videos, we don't see evidence of what the Trump administration has been saying. Footage shared with the BBC by the news movement appears to show Alex Pretty and other protesters in a confrontation with federal agents in the days after Rene Good's death. It's unclear exactly what the agents were doing. This man has the same coat, facial hair and gait as Alex Pretty, and a facial recognition tool suggests a 97% match. We see him shouting abuse at the agents. He also motions to spit at a federal agent in a car, and then kicks the rear light of the car, twice. Agents then wrestle him to the ground. He's then allowed to get up, and as he does, a gun can be seen in his waistband. It's in the same position as the gun Alex Pretty was carrying on the day he was killed. This earlier incident, shown in the video shared with the BBC, happened at the intersection of Park Avenue and East 36th Street. Eleven days later, Alex Pretty was shot dead, just over two kilometres away, on Nicollet Avenue. His killing, and the Trump administration's unsubstantiated claims about what happened, have provided another test of what Americans will and won't accept from the federal government.