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CNN host Dana Bash sparred with Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino on Sunday over another deadly shooting involving federal officials that took place in Minneapolis over the weekend.
Minneapolis ICU nurse Alex Pretti was shot by a Border Patrol agent on Saturday. Footage of the incident showed an agent disarmed Pretti shortly before he was killed. He entered into the initial scuffle with agents as he tried to assist another protester who had been pushed by law enforcement.
An investigation was launched into the shooting, though Bovino previously claimed that Pretti had intended to do “maximum damage” prior to his death.
“All of the video that we have seen shows him documenting it with his cell phone, which is a lawful thing to do, and the only time he seemed to interact with law enforcement is when they went after him, when he was trying to help an individual who law enforcement pushed down,” Bash said. “So where do you have the evidence to show that he was trying to impede that law enforcement operation?”
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“Sure, Dana, first, he was there in the scene,” Bovino responded. “He was in the scene actively impeding and assaulting law enforcement to the—“
“But that‘s not illegal,” Bash interrupted. “He wasn‘t impeding it. He was filming it, which is a legal thing to do in the United States.”
“Dana, don‘t freeze-frame adjudicate this. Now, he was there for a reason. And that reason was to impede law enforcement,” Bovino responded.
Bash repeatedly asked Bovino what evidence he had that Pretti assaulted law enforcement. Bovino responded that the evidence was the de-escalation techniques being deployed by officers against Pretti, whom he referred to as a “suspect.”
Bash then suggested Bovino was “blaming the victim” after calling him a suspect and accusing him of inserting himself into an enforcement operation.
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“The victims are the Border Patrol agents. I‘m not blaming the Border Patrol agents. The victims are the Border Patrol agents. The suspect put himself in that situation. The victims are the Border Patrol agents there,” Bovino said.
Bash also asked Bovino whether he believed Pretti was within his First and Second Amendment rights to protest immigration operations and conceal-carry a gun. Bovino emphasized that Pretti’s rights did not extend to “riot and assault, delay, obstruct and impede law enforcement officers.”
“There’s no evidence that he was perpetrating violence,” Bash argued. “And there’s no evidence, unless you have it, and we’d love to see it if there is, that he was intending to massacre law enforcement other than the fact that he was there, and he had a gun lawfully.”
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“He meant to be there beforehand. Again, Dana, he came there beforehand for a reason,” Bovino said.
“How do you know that? How do you know that?” Bash asked.
“Because he was there, because he was there,” Bovino responded.
Fox News Digital reached out to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
Pretti’s death came less than one month after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good in her car in Minneapolis in what federal officials said was an act of self-defense as she drove toward him. Her death sparked widespread protests and unrest in the city.
Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
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