Andrew McCarthy: Balanced view of Pretti shooting is needed

[Column in National Review by Andy McCarthy, who, even when I disagree with him — I mostly agree with this one, but not entirely — is always thoughtful and knowledgeable and works hard to be fair-minded. This came out very shortly after the shooting was reported, on Jan. 24)

A situation that was already a tinder box now verges on an inferno.

A man identified in press reports as Alex Jeffrey Pretti was shot and killed by an unidentified border patrol agent in Minneapolis this morning. The chief of police there, Brian O’Hara, says that the deceased was a 37-year-old white male, apparently an American citizen, who was licensed to carry a firearm. The New York Times reports that Minnesota law authorizes citizens to carry guns in public, without concealment.

Pretti was not the subject of the immigration enforcement operation that federal agents were conducting. He was an “observer” who was watching and apparently recording the federal agents….

If the account of the local police and other reporting is correct, then the statement put out by the Department of Homeland Security appears dubious….

In the absence of having conducted anything resembling a competent investigation of the matter, DHS conclusorily said “the suspect” — a reference to Pretti, although it’s hard to understand how he was a suspect at the time — “also had 2 magazines [presumably, for reloading his handgun] and no ID — this looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”

Apparently, Pretti was legally in possession of a gun; and, putting aside that we don’t know exactly where the gun was at the time of the altercation, it seems clear that Pretti was observing numerous federal agents before the altercation — i.e., if his intention had been to “massacre” agents and do “maximum damage,” he had plenty of opportunity to do that. It’s thus difficult to understand how DHS could leap to the conclusions it has leapt to….

[Then, an absolutely key point:] 

O’Hara, the Minneapolis police chief, says that federal agents tried to take control of the shooting scene, telling the local police they were not needed and could leave. O’Hara, however, ordered his cops to remain on the scene and secure it — as police would ordinarily do at a shooting in which someone was killed.

To be clear, the federal agents have jurisdiction to investigate immigration crimes and any related obstruction. This does not change the fact that the state and local police have jurisdiction to investigate shootings on the streets of their cities, including shootings by federal agents. If the federal agents have immunity from prosecution or can get any state charges removed to federal court, those are legal matters that can be asserted and decided down the road. For now, the feds have no authority to tell the state and local police to vacate the scene of a legitimate state and local investigation…..

[The full column, which also criticizes local officials for their escalatory rhetoric, is here.]