Gun rights activist Kyle Rittenhouse condemned the comparison of his story to that of the latest Minneapolis, Minnesota, shooting to “stoke the flames.”
On Saturday, a Border Patrol agent shot and killed Alex Pretti, 37, after Pretti allegedly got involved during a federal operation. Pretti was present at the scene of what the Department of Homeland Security called a “targeted” operation “against an illegal alien wanted for violent assault.”
At the time, Pretti was carrying a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun on his person, according to DHS, but not in his hand. Open carry of a handgun is legal in Minnesota with a permit. Video shows that Pretti was disarmed before being shot multiple times.
Some compared Pretti’s final moments to the story of how Rittenhouse rose to fame. In 2020, 17-year-old Rittenhouse attended a rally in Kenosha, Wisconsin, while openly carrying a rifle. During a confrontation, Rittenhouse fatally shot two people but was ultimately acquitted of homicide after he said he acted in self-defense.
“Armed vigilante kills two civilians in Wisconsin and is called a hero by Trump and Far-Right extremists. Law-abiding VA nurse is killed by masked thugs in Minnesota and they label him a domestic terrorist,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) wrote on Facebook on Sunday.
As a result of the post and others on X, Rittenhouse was trending online on Sunday. Rittenhouse responded directly to Jeffries on X on Monday.
“Hakeem Jeffries is a gay communist. It was his supporters — pedophiles and woman beaters — who ATTACKED me in the streets of Kenosha,” he wrote. “Now he wants to continue defending these degenerates and use my situation for rage bait and stoke the flames. NOPE.”
During Saturday’s incident, Pretti was helping another protester who was shoved to the ground when an agent began pepper-spraying him from behind and wrestled him to the ground with the help of several other agents. During the struggle, an agent was seen carrying what appeared to be Pretti’s gun away, with the fatal shots fired seconds later.
Others online noted FBI Director Kash Patel’s change in tone regarding armed protesters. In 2021, when Rittenhouse was on trial for homicide, and long before Patel became director, he promised to “help Kyle Rittenhouse.”
However, while on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures, Patel condemned Pretti, saying, “You cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want.”
Notably, President Donald Trump has not advocated for or against the Border Patrol agents involved in Pretti’s death.
BORDER PATROL AGENTS INVOLVED IN PRETTI SHOOTING REASSIGNED
“I don’t like any shooting. I don’t like it,” Trump said when asked about the shooting on Sunday. “But I don’t like it when somebody goes into a protest, and he’s got a very powerful, fully-loaded gun with two magazines loaded up with bullets also. That doesn’t play good either.”
Even Rittenhouse seemingly expressed his hesitance to comment on the matter when he shared a post from another gun activist that said, “Man, it’s really cool to be called both a ‘bootlicker’ and ‘anti-cop’ at the same time for saying I want to wait to learn more details before I have an informed opinion.”