The aftermath of a murder
This is how Stella Carlson described the actions of the CBP agents, after they had dragged Alex Pretti into the street and shot him 10 times as he lay there, unarmed, outnumbered, and defenseless:
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Like what? What? And I knew he was gone because I watched it. And then they come over to try and perform some kind of medical aid, by ripping his clothes open with scissors.
And then maneuvering his body around like a rag doll. Only to discover that it could be that they wanted to count the bullet wounds to see how many they got. Like he’s a deer?
I watched that. And that is what it felt like they were doing. And that was why I was like: “What are you guys doing? Why would you jostle his body around like that? You aren’t even doing anything to help him. But I knew he was gone.”
The administration is not hiring the right people to protect the people.
The full story
Stella Carlson is a children’s entertainer in Minneapolis. She became internet famous as the “Pink Coat Lady” featured in bystander videos of the CBP murder of Alex Pretti. She also videotaped the killing. And it was her video as much as any that established the facts of the case. And showed the administration was lying in trying to excuse the inexcusable.
On Tuesday evening, CNN’s Anderson Cooper interviewed Carlson. She explained how she came to witness the killing. The actions of the victim and the CBP agents before his death. The shooting. And, most horrifically, the callous inhumanity of the CBP officers as they desecrated Pretti’s corpse.
She told Copper she was there because, after setting up a face-painting station for a kids’ party, she had spare time. She heard the whistles blown to alert the community that federal agents were on the streets. She drove to the site. Saw CBP tackling one person and punching someone else’s car windows. She parked her car. And started filming.
When Cooper asked why she came forward, she answered that she wanted Americans to know the truth. And she felt called to be a responsible citizen by documenting potential official brutality. Which she had been doing for three weeks after DHS descended on her hometown.
She started her video by focusing on Pretti filming the CBP agents with a phone in his right hand, and waving cars past with his left. No gun in sight. She dismissed Kristi Noem’s statement that Pretti was there to “inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement” as complete make-believe.
Carlson added that Pretti was calm, not threatening anyone, and “absolutely not” brandishing a weapon. She described one agent who “barked” at her as “So aggressive. So inappropriately rude and violent in the way they look at you. So violent.”
She then describes how they pushed a woman down. How Alex went to the fallen woman’s aid. And how the agents then turned to him and dragged him into the street.
Carlson said the agents acted as if they were playing a video game. And added that they behaved as if they had complete immunity to do whatever they wanted. To treat people as if they had no rights. And to see the Constitution as something to be laughed at.
She then says:
“And before you knew it, ‘pow, pow, pow, pow.’ And I saw Alex on the ground. And then there’s nobody around. After he was shot, the agents fled. And all I saw was Alex on the ground.
Cooper points out that it was shocking that the last five shots were from a distance at a man lying on the ground, not moving. He asks Carlson if she remembers that. She replies:
“Alex being shot is the most memorable part of it. The agents are not a part of that. I think because I watched him die. I mean, I watched him die [She tears up]. I remember him arching his back. His head rolling back. It was so fast-moving. But not for me. When they left, when they fled. Which, now I see that after the shooting, they decided to just scatter and save themselves.”
It is here that Carlson describes the actions of the DHS agents as if they were examining a dead trophy deer (see, The aftermath of a murder above)
Cooper then asks “You knew he was gone then?” Carlson replies:
“I knew he was gone. There was no way with the way his dead body was moving. And I only knew that because of the way they were manipulating his dead body. Just playing with it. Like they are in a video game.
She added: They were looking at us and laughing.”
Later, Cooper states, “To you, this was murder.” Carlson answers:
“Yes. I know it is. It was an assassination in full view, in the middle of the street, of someone who has served our country, and continues to serve at the Veterans’ hospital. Nobody should worry about being assassinated in our streets, especially in America.
She finishes by saying she was at the scene to provide evidence in case anyone was detained. She had no idea she was going to be filming “a murder, an assassination.”
Who would? As often as we have seen video of cops killing someone without justification, it is still hard for most Americans to believe law enforcement will murder innocent civilians in the street. But sadly, it is becoming easier.
