Government documents have identified the two federal officers who fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis as Jesus Ochoa, a border patrol agent, and Raymundo Gutierrez, an officer with Customs and Border Protection (CBP), according to ProPublica.
According to those records, Ochoa, 43, and Gutierrez, 35, were the agents who fired their weapons during the confrontation last weekend that resulted in Pretti’s death. The shooting sparked widespread demonstrations and renewed demands for criminal inquiries into federal immigration enforcement actions. Immediately following Pretti’s killing, the Trump administration repeatedly pushed false claims about the shooting.
At the time of the incident, both agents were participating in Operation Metro Surge, a large-scale immigration enforcement initiative that launched in December. The operation deployed numerous armed, masked agents throughout Minneapolis as part of a citywide sweep.
CBP, the agency that employs both men, has declined to publicly name the agents involved and has released little additional information about the shooting. The lack of transparency has drawn heightened scrutiny, particularly because the incident occurred only days after another immigration agent shot and killed a different Minneapolis protester, Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three.
Pretti’s death and the secrecy surrounding the agents’ identities have unfolded amid growing national debate over Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies. Enforcement actions in cities nationwide have included violent encounters involving both immigrants and US citizens, carried out by agents who, controversially, are permitted to conceal their identities with masks.
Lawmakers from both parties have since urged a full and transparent investigation into the killing of Pretti, who was 37 and worked as an intensive care unit nurse at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital.
Earlier this week, CBP sent a notice to select members of Congress confirming that two agents discharged Glock pistols during the encounter that led to Pretti’s death, though the notice omitted their names. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees CBP, said through a spokesperson that the agents were placed on leave following the shooting.
After days of protests and pressure from lawmakers, the justice department announced on Friday that its civil rights division had opened an investigation.
Records reportedly show that Ochoa joined CBP in 2018 as a border patrol agent, while Gutierrez began working for the agency in 2014. Gutierrez serves in CBP’s office of field operations and is part of a special response team that handles high-risk missions similar to those carried out by police Swat units. Both men are from south Texas.
