An agent appears to take a gun out of Pretti’s waistband during the struggle, then turns and leaves with it. The suit noted the “astonishing” departure from normal investigations, seemingly trying not to preserve evidence but to destroy it. As Jacob Knutson of Democracy Docket noted, she explicitly tied the administration’s violence in the state to its determination to get its hands on voters’ personal data before the 2026 election. Tonight, even right-wing podcaster Tim Pool reacted to Pretti’s killing by noting that it looked as if the agent had disarmed Pretti before the other agents shot him. And let me just be clear, those federal ICE officers are absolute cowards.

Source: New York Times January 25, 2026 06:42 UTC