"I'm Michael Pretti, Alex's father. Our son Alex was shot and killed by the government—federal immigration agents—on January 24, 2026." After thanking those gathered, that's how Michael Pretti began his remarks at a Tuesday press conference in Minneapolis, just over nine months after US Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and…
Page T31From§Eachthe evening edition — 3 November 2026
DOJ's only ICE indictment this cycle covers a vehicle; 65 local officials are targeted for holding it accountable.
As it ran on the front
The chief opened the file the same way twice this year: a government tool built for exactly this day, and whether anyone had touched it. In August, Pretti's family called the government's description of their son — "assassin," "domestic terrorist" — what it was. On October 23rd, Minnesota officials told a court the federal government had stopped turning over evidence in its own investigation of both deaths. Four days later, Pretti's father stood in Minneapolis, nine months after the shooting, and said the names out loud himself: Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa, CBP officer Raymundo Gutierrez. The planner studied the sequence and admired its symmetry — evidence stops flowing the same week the only channel left open is a father reading names into a microphone because no prosecutor has.
The tinkerer laid the sole federal indictment of an ICE officer this cycle next to those two names, and it did not match: a Texas officer charged for running down an immigrant with his SUV, who turned himself in on October 30th. Not Ochoa. Not Gutierrez. A different officer, a different state, a different weapon — the one piece of federal machinery that moved this cycle moved somewhere else entirely.…
…(cont) The muscle went looking for the matching tool and found it aimed the wrong direction: the Justice Department has sixty-five local officials in its sights for holding ICE accountable, and as of this week, zero ICE officers in its sights for the deaths in Minneapolis. The statute exists either way; the Department chose which end of it to use.
The pilot flew it to where the voters already were. On Tuesday, Minnesotans walked up to the memorial sites for Pretti and Good and left their "I Voted" stickers there, beside the flowers, beside the names the father had to supply himself nine months in. No press release announced it. No subpoena required it. Just a sticker, on a grave marker, standing in for the paperwork the Justice Department still has not filed.
“They've got the same law on the shelf the whole time — the one that can indict sixty-five mayors and councilmembers can indict an agent who shoots a nurse in the street. They just never take it off the shelf for themselves. That's not an oversight, that's the design.”
“The Texas case proves the system works — an ICE officer got indicted, case closed. The Minneapolis shootings are still under review, that's not stonewalling, that's due diligence. Due diligence that's taken nine months and lost its own evidence-sharing agreement. Did I say that? That's not what I meant.”
Earlier in this story
- Justice Department targets 65 officials for holding ICE accountable, holds none of its own accountable. By The Wrecking Crew · the evening edition, 3 November 2026
- Justice Department targets 65 officials for holding ICE accountable, stops sharing its own evidence on ICE killings By Lou · the evening edition, 2 November 2026
The receipts
Residents are sending a clear message about the violent deportations taking place across the US this midterm cycle Minnesota voters left “I Voted” stickers on memorial sites for Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, the two US citizens killed by federal immigration officials earlier this year. Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse…
· 'What Did He Do to Deserve to Be Murdered?' Alex Pretti's Family Speaks Out Months After Fatal ICE Shooting from the morgue, 25 Aug 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.