Social Media Thinks Alex Pretti Shooting Escalates to Homicide After They Found Out Suspects Were Hispanic

When the official ruling landed, declaring Alex Pretti's death a homicide, it did more than settle who's accountable. The 37-year-old intensive care nurse had been shot dead on a Minneapolis street on 24 January while filming a federal immigration operation.

Social media users, discovering that the agents involved, Jesús Ochoa and Raymundo Gutiérrez, are of Hispanic heritage, quickly speculated that it's the reason Pretti's death became a homicide.

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office confirmed that Pretti's death resulted from multiple gunshot wounds sustained during a large-scale federal immigration enforcement operation. The term 'homicide' in this context merely identifies that one human caused the death of another, but it does not automatically indicate criminal conduct. Experts point out that many police-involved shootings are medically classified as homicides even when later deemed legally justified.

Yet online discourse ignored this subtlety.

In one highly shared post, a commentator described Pretti as 'murdered by ICE thugs,' interpreting the ruling through a lens of institutional distrust and racial grievance. Others, slightly more measured, reminded readers that a coroner's declaration does not constitute criminal charges, noting that prosecutors, not medical examiners, determine legal culpability.

Who Killed Alex Pretti?

Jesus Ochoa and Raymundo Gutierrez have been identified in government records as the two federal immigration agents who fired the shots that killed Pretti.

Jesus Ochoa, 43, is a Border Patrol agent who joined US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in 2018. He has a background in criminal justice, having graduated from the University of Texas‑Pan American, and is originally from the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas. According to reports, Ochoa has been described by people close to him as a gun enthusiast with an extensive firearms collection.

Raymundo Gutierrez, 35, is a Customs and Border Protection officer who entered the agency in 2014. He works within CBP's Office of Field Operations and is part of a special response team, a unit trained for high‑risk operations similar to police SWAT teams. Like Ochoa, Gutierrez also hails from South Texas and was deployed as part of a large immigration enforcement initiative nicknamed 'Operation Metro Surge'.

Both men were placed on administrative leave following the fatal shooting amid growing public scrutiny and protests. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initially withheld its identities, citing officer safety concerns, but investigative reporting uncovered their names in official records.

Hispanic Suspects Led to Homicide Rule?

Once users learned that the agents Ochoa and Gutiérrez are both Hispanic, discussions erupted online. People began to question whether ethnicity influenced their actions or the way the law was enforced.

Some commenters suggested that, even though the officers are from a minority group, they were participating in an enforcement system that is often criticised for harming communities of colour. Essentially, they saw the officers' ethnicity as ironic or even a 'betrayal' of expected solidarity.

Some discussions went further, questioning why federal officers can cause deaths without facing immediate charges, while regular citizens might face prosecution for much smaller offences.

The Human Cost of Trump's Immigration Policies

For some commenters, the real human story risks being lost. Pretti was a Minneapolis resident and ICU nurse, known by friends as someone committed to helping others. Eyewitness videos show him holding a phone rather than a weapon, and friends recall him stepping in to assist a woman struck to the ground during the altercation.

What cannot be overlooked is context: this is the second fatal shooting of a US citizen by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis in recent weeks.