The identities of the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents who shot and killed ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis were revealed in a ProPublica report — and both men are from Texas’ Rio Grande Valley.
Government records identify the pair who fired on Pretti as Border Patrol Agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez, ProPublica reports.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees CBP, said the agents were placed on leave after the Jan. 24 shooting.
Ochoa joined CBP as a Border Patrol agent in 2018. Meanwhile, Gutierrez has worked in CBP’s Office of Field Operations since 2014, where he’s assigned to a special response team that conducts high-risk operations, according to details uncovered by ProPublica.
Both South Texas natives were reassigned from their home state to Operation Metro Surge, a dragnet launched in December that dispatched thousands of armed and masked agents into the Minneapolis area to conduct immigration enforcement.
Ochoa graduated from the University of Texas-Pan American — now University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley — where he obtained with a degree in criminal justice, ProPublica reports.
According to his ex-wife, Ochoa dreamed of joining Border Patrol and is a gun enthusiast with a large personal arsenal.
ProPublica unearthed the agents’ identities and released them Sunday despite what Democratic lawmakers call a White House coverup to protect the pair’s identities.
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi Monday, accused the Justice Department of shielding evidence in the killing of both Pretti and Renee Good, another Minneapolis resident shot to death by immigration agents days before.
“DOJ has also blocked prosecutors and agents from cooperating with state law enforcement officials and prevented state officials from accessing evidence,” the letter said.
The administration’s lack of transparency and cooperation seems to extend to information requests from state and local officials.
“We don’t have any information on the shooters,” a Minneapolis city spokesperson said. A spokesperson for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said Tuesday that his office also had “not been given the names, and we don’t have any new information on the investigation.”
Meanwhile, White House officials covered for the officers’ conduct, depicting Pretti as a domestic terrorist and the shooting death as an act of self-defense,
“The agents attempted to disarm the individual, but he violently resisted,” Greg Bovino, former CBP commander at large, said in a Jan. 25 news conference. “Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, a Border Patrol agent fired defensive shots.”
Top Trump aide Stephen Miller, a chief engineer of the president’s aggressive immigration crackdown, called Pretti a “would-be assassin,” then later admitted that CBP agents “may not have been following protocol.”
Some Republicans have broken away from the party to call for an independent investigation.
“We must have a transparent, independent investigation into the Minnesota shooting, and those responsible — no matter their title — must be held accountable,” Republican Sen. John Curtis of Utah tweeted Monday.
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