Federal agents assault reporter, shoving & pepper-spraying her as she covers the aftermath of shocking killing of Alex Pretti

"Someone has to take control of this situation because it is dangerous."

Mark Mark
Jan 25, 2026 - 19:00
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A queer Minneapolis-based journalist is sharing her story after being assaulted by federal immigration agents while reporting on the murder of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen and ICU nurse who worked at the Minneapolis VA hospital.

Jana Shortal is a long-time reporter and news anchor at KARE 11, Minneapolis’ NBC affiliate. On Saturday, she was on the scene in south Minneapolis minutes after a gang of federal agents sprayed, beat and fatally shot Pretti then continued shooting him as he lay motionless in the middle of the street.

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“I was behind the line, trying to show what was happening, and they pushed me and sprayed me in the eye,” Shortal said in a video posted to her Instagram page. “I was behind the line.”

In the caption, Shortal added that she was “clearly marked press” and standing “behind the police tape” when an agent told her to move back. She complied. But as she was doing so, a second agent pushed her.

“I yelled I am press don’t push me, he shoved me again. And then I was sprayed,” she wrote. “Behind the line. I played by the rules doing my job. They did not.”

Shortal, who lost her glasses during the commotion, has worked for Minneapolis’ NBC affiliate for the past two decades. In 2024, she won a Regional Emmy for Best Anchor (Upper Midwest).

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Queer news anchor Jana Shortal celebrates Emmy win with powerful message
Then Shortal landed a job at KARE 11. After about a year, aged 26, Shortal began to inform people they were gay.

Queer news anchor Jana Shortal celebrates Emmy win with powerful message
Then Shortal landed a job at KARE 11. After about a year, aged 26, Shortal began to inform people they were gay.

After being attacked, Shortal returned to the studio to talk about the experience. She described a violent and chaotic scene, largely due to the behavior of federal agents.

“I was behind the press line and all of a sudden a couple of border patrol agents decided to move the press line, but nobody really knew why,” she explained.

Very quickly, Shortal recounted, the agents “aggressively started saying ‘Move back,’ but nobody knew what was happening, and this was all happening on four different sides of the street at the same time.”

Shortal complied with the orders but was “apparently not fast enough” and an agent, who she said was “probably twice my size,” shoved her backwards.

“I said ‘Don’t push me, I’m press.’ I was wearing my press credential. And he did it again. And I said ‘Do not push me I’m press’,” she explained. And that’s when the chemical irritant was dispersed directly into her eye.

“Normally there’s loudspeakers, like, ‘Please disperse, please disperse,’ and that wasn’t happening this time,” she added. “It seemed like everything was happening on a reactionary basis and that is what concerns me.”

“Someone has to take control of this situation because it is dangerous.”

Watch.

Multiple videos of Pretti’s killing from multiple different angles, as well as eye witness accounts, have contradicted the DHS’s version of what happened and have prompted criticism from across the political spectrum. More and more people are speaking out against ICE’s tactics, the federal government’s blatantly false narratives, and the beatings, arrests and killings of legal immigrants and U.S. citizens.

Former president and first lady Barack and Michelle Obama issued a statement calling what happened to Pretti a “heartbreaking tragedy,” and saying, “It should also be a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.”

Former U.S. congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene took to X to implore Americans to “take off their political blinders,” warning, “You are all being incited into civil war, yet none of it solves any of the real problems that we all face, and tragically people are dying.”

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called on people from all political parties and ideologies to speak out, saying “Americans have to unite and stop this descent from a freedom-loving nation into the kind of place where masked, militarized government agents are sent to politically noncompliant areas to roam the streets, terrorize civilians, and deploy violence with impunity.”

Steven Nekhaila, chairman of the Libertarian National Committee, published an article slamming the Trump Administration for creating a police state and saying “the tools of war have been normalized in civilian governance.”

“Abolish ICE. Reform the broken immigration system. Do not give the police state an inch,” he urged.

Even the National Rifle Association issued a statement blasting the federal government’s narrative that Pretti’s firearm, which he had a permit to carry and which had been taken away from him before he was shot multiple times in the back, justified the use of deadly force against him, saying “Responsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens.”

In a statement to KARE 11, Pretti’s parents described themselves as “heartbroken but also very angry” and dismissed what they called “sickening lies” from the Trump administration:

We are heartbroken but also very angry. 

Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the hero term lightly. However his last thought and act was to protect a woman. 

The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed. 

Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.

A GoFundMe campaign called “Alex Pretti is an American Hero” was launched yesterday and quickly surpassed its goal of $20,000. Proceeds will go to Pretti’s family.

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