Minneapolis’ anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protests have continued to intensify. Over the weekend, several clashes between protesters and ICE agents occurred, one that resulted in 37-year-old Minnesota local Alex Pretti, who was carrying a legally concealed handgun, being shot and killed by several ICE agents during a federal immigration enforcement operation on January 24.

The reporting on the circumstances surrounding Pretti’s death has been conflicting. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, as well as other Trump administration officials, have framed the ICE officers’ actions as justified.

In her official statement, Noem said, “An individual approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9-millimeter semi-automatic handgun. The officers attempted to disarm this individual, but the armed suspect reacted violently. Fearing for his life and for the lives of his fellow officers around him, an agent fired defensive shots.”

She further described the incident as “a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage and kill law enforcement,” labeling it “domestic terrorism.”

Multiple bystander videos, forensic audio analyses, and video analyses and reporting from major outlets including the New York Times, BBC, and NPR, however, directly contradict these claims. This evidence indicates Pretti was already pinned to the ground, disarmed (his concealed handgun removed from his waistband during the scuffle), and no longer posing a threat when agents fired numerous rounds.

As of now, many American citizens appear genuinely confused and divided about what really happened in Alex Pretti’s shooting due to the sharply conflicting narratives.

On this episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn offers some insight to the truth behind Alex Pretti’s shooting — examining the conflicting claims, the chaotic scuffle, and why rushing to judgment or prosecution could miss the bigger picture of escalating unrest.

“First of all, what Noem said is not true,” says Glenn frankly.

“If you want to say technically he approached carrying a 9mm, he did, but it was holstered and in his back. And you have a right to carry a gun at a protest. … It is perfectly legal and constitutionally protected,” he adds.

While it was unwise for Pretti to carry a gun and get involved with federal officers, it was not technically illegal because he never actually pulled the gun, Glenn explains.

On the other hand, the officers who shot Pretti were in an extremely “chaotic situation,” Glenn pivots, noting that these men are on edge after enduring ceaseless violence, doxxing, and threats from protesters.

Video footage captures a tangle of people — officers in tactical gear, one in plainclothes, Pretti, and other protesters — in a wrestling match on the ground. The officer who discovered Pretti’s handgun and removed it from his waistband was wearing plainclothes, meaning bystanders — including the ones who yelled “gun” — could have easily mistaken him for an armed protester.

Further there’s a good chance agents in the scuffle with Pretti didn’t see the plainclothes officer remove the handgun and could have assumed that the people yelling “gun” were referring to Pretti.

Glenn says that the civil rights protests spearheaded by Martin Luther King Jr. were only successful because they were peaceful. Protesters didn’t bring guns to demonstrations; they didn’t escalate confrontations with police; and they didn’t intentionally create chaos.

“King would have let [Pretti] rot in prison and wouldn’t have marched for that guy because he had a gun, because he made the rest of the movement look dangerous. Even though he had a right to have a gun, Martin Luther King would have said, ‘You don’t bring a gun. You don’t push back. You don’t do it because that’s the way peaceful protests win,’” says Glenn, “and everybody who knows anything about protesting knows this.”

“The left, they’ve been preaching Martin Luther King forever. They know this is not the tactic of Martin Luther King. This is the tactic that escalates, not de-escalates, things.”

All evidence considered, Glenn falls somewhere in the middle on Pretti’s death.

“We have to be very careful with our words and speak the truth at all times, even if it hurts our side,” he says.

“I don’t think he should have been shot, but I also don’t think they should prosecute [the officers who shot him] because it’s a chaotic situation. … It’s just a really nasty, bad situation.”

To hear more of Glenn’s analysis, watch the video above.

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​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Minneapolis protests, Minnesota, Anti ice protests, Anti ice, Alex pretti, Renee good, Blazetv, Blaze media, Mlk, Civil rights protests 

The date on the indoor surveillance video reads January 19, and the time reads 12:44 a.m.

In that moment, the clip shows a break-in at a home in the affluent neighborhood of Jamaica Estates in Queens, New York. WABC-TV reported that the crew allegedly was looking to steal a luxury car’s key fob.

‘If they want to come back, let them.’

But the homeowner had a little surprise. He’s a licensed concealed carrier — and was armed, the station said.

One of the burglars came into the home through a window, using a phone flashlight to check items in the kitchen, WABC said.

“I’m like, ‘I have a gun; don’t move!'” the homeowner recounted to the station.

Then the crook got lucky.

“I pull the trigger and the gun jams,” the homeowner added to WABC. “By whatever divine intervention, the gun doesn’t shoot.”

Not that the burglar knew. Surveillance video shows the culprit running through the window where entry was gained — and the other crew members followed suit.

RELATED: Blaze News original: 10 times concealed carriers in Chicago stopped crooks in their tracks in the last year

“Both of my cars are in the driveway. My lights turned on as soon as they approached the front gate. And so they knew somebody was home. But they didn’t seem to care,” the homeowner recalled to the station, adding that it was the one night he didn’t activate the alarm system at his residence.

The homeowner said his wife and kids also were home at the time of the break-in, and the targeted item apparently was a key fob for his luxury Bentley vehicle, WABC said.

“The detectives told me. There was a dispatch for three other burglaries. Two of them were successful; they stole another Porsche and a Range Rover,” the homeowner noted to the station.

The crime spike has put on alert Jewish residents who might be on vacation for Yeshiva, WABC said.

“If they want to come back, let them. This time the gun won’t be jammed. Hopefully, it won’t get there. But I don’t feel like I have a target on my back, because everybody here is a target — it’s a collective community,” the homeowner added to the station.

Police are looking for the three suspects involved in the incident, WABC added.

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Radicals swarmed a hotel in Maple Grove, Minnesota, on Monday night, working under the presumption that U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino was inside. While some in the mob appeared keen at the outset to simply scream, bang their pans, and impotently blow whistles in protest of CBP and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, others decided to get violent.

The Maple Grove Police Department, which responded around 8 p.m. to reports of a protest at the SpringHill Suites by Marriott, demonstrated that it has a lower tolerance for attacks on law enforcement than their local counterparts in Minneapolis — and the proof manifested in tear gas and arrests.

‘These violent anarchists will not deter ICE from carrying out the American people’s mandate.’

“The situation escalated when individuals in the crowd engaged in unlawful behavior,” the MGPD said in a statement. “Property damage occurred, and objects were thrown at officers. At that point, the activity was no longer considered peaceful.”

After declaring the mob action an unlawful assembly, police issued a dispersal order. Footage shows police securing the area around the hotel, standing off with radicals, then systematically driving away the mob.

In addition to using pepper balls, Maple Grove police — who were assisted by the Minnesota State Patrol, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office hours after President Donald Trump had positive calls with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) — apparently utilized tear gas to drive away rioters.

RELATED: Democrats threaten to shut down government over ICE funding: ‘We are not powerless’

Law enforcement stands ready outside the Spring Hill Suites on Jan. 26. Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images.

Police told CNN that approximately 26 people were arrested outside the hotel.

Radicals advertised the anti-Border Patrol rally as a “Goodbye Bovino Noise Demo.”

Blaze News has reached out to the hotel and Marriott for comment.

The evening before the riot in Maple Grove, leftists stormed a hotel in Minneapolis where they believed federal immigration agents were staying. Radicals vandalized the Home2 Suites by Hilton Hotel late Sunday, smashing windows and throwing debris into the lobby.

— (@)

Footage shows a solitary, bloody federal agent holding his ground at one stage in the evening while radicals assembled in front of the hotel. According to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, federal agents successfully cleared that group with the help of chemical irritants.

The Department of Homeland Security indicated that the Sunday hotel attack was “part of a coordinated campaign of violence against law enforcement.”

“These violent anarchists will not deter ICE from carrying out the American people’s mandate to arrest and deport the worst of the worst,” added the DHS.

— (@)

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