Minnesota Shooting Seemingly Caused By Accident

Here's what I found

Obviously, today’s headlines have been largely centered on ICE shooting 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis this morning. As usual, both sides are trying to spin the facts on the ground — meaning we can’t trust either of them. That’s why I’ve spent the day scouring through videos of the incident and believe the entire thing hinges on two tragic mistakes.

First, here are the two videos in question I used to “investigate” as much as I could. These were the clearest videos I could find, and together I think they pretty much tell the story.

The view from the sidewalk:

The view from the road:

Both of these videos are important in their own way, but to really dig in here, we’ll start with a 30% speed version of the sidewalk video. At the start of the video, the suspect is on the ground with officers surrounding him. The officer in grey bends down to disarm the suspect, then stands up and yells “GUN” (10 seconds in). Two seconds later (slowed-down time), the first shot rings out, and more shots quickly follow.

It seems fairly obvious to me the agents are reacting to the “GUN” call followed almost immediately by a gunshot. This is the first tragic mistake — miscommunication. With all the chaos, it’s nearly CERTAIN that every officer mistakenly believed the suspect had a gun and had just fired.

But by doing an EXTREME slowdown (.03x speed) of the road video, I think we see the truth. I’ve muted most of the sound and zoomed in on the important area of the video. This is just after the officer in grey has taken the gun and is exiting the immediate vicinity. Watch very closely.

Did you catch it?

Here’s another look, 3 frames after the gunshot. It sure looks like a shell casing being ejected and a bullet speeding toward the pavement.

3 frames earlier, for reference — no casing, no bullet:

That might explain why the guy on the far right here acted the way he did — the bullet likely skipped right by him based on the way the officer was holding the gun.

This event is complicated by the fact the gun in question is a SIG Sauer P320, a gun which has a long history of going off when the operator doesn’t want it to:

An FBI evaluation just went public confirming that a Michigan State Police officer’s SIG Sauer M18 — the same platform as the commercial P320 — fired without the trigger being pulled.

The 32-page report shows that while SIG’s striker-fired system uses multiple safeties, FBI testing found that normal movements by a law enforcement officer can make the striker safety lock useless if the sear fails — letting the striker hit a live round.

Michigan isn’t the only state that police had issues with the P320 — an incident at a Connecticut police station was caught on camera as well (Video at link):

The issue with the P320 is so widespread, SIG Sauer is facing multiple lawsuits around the country.

On June 20, jurors in the Atlanta federal court found unanimously on all counts for Robert Lang of Roswell, Georgia, after deliberating for roughly nine hours. They concluded not only that SIG Sauer defectively designed the P320, but also that the company had failed to provide adequate warnings to consumers about the risk of unintended shootings.

The verdict comes amid a storm of controversy for SIG Sauer regarding its popular P320 handgun. In April 2023, The Trace and The Washington Post published an investigation revealing that more than 100 people had alleged that their P320s fired without the trigger being pulled, and at least 80 people had been injured in the shootings. SIG Sauer has maintained that the incidents were the result of unsafe handling and that the P320 is safe to use.

I’ve watched the slowed down road video a hundred times, and it doesn’t LOOK like the officer has his hand anywhere near the trigger — though it’s impossible to say for sure. This means the second tragic mistake is likely an accidental discharge stemming from poor gun design — a discharge which led the other officers to open fire.

More than anything else, this incident should be a slap in the face for people who think that wrestling with cops is some sort of game. Whenever people interact with law enforcement, there’s a chance things go completely sideways — a good reason not to interact with police at all unless it’s absolutely necessary.

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