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Here at The Dispatch, we make a point of sitting out the race to be first to get it wrong on a story, and there is much that we do not know about the shooting of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday. That said, I will for the purpose of this column work from these assumptions, which at the moment seem reasonable: Agents made an attempt to arrest Pretti, who was legally carrying a pistol; Pretti was disarmed by an agent; the other agents in the scrum may not have been clear on the fact that Pretti had been disarmed; the agent in possession of Pretti’s pistol possibly—this is not an established fact—discharged it by accident; hearing the shot—and the word “Gun!” having been shouted—the agents shot and killed Pretti, firing a total of 10 rounds.
Kevin D. Williamson is national correspondent at The Dispatch and is based in Virginia. Prior to joining the company in 2022, he spent 15 years as a writer and editor at National Review, worked as the theater critic at the New Criterion, and had a long career in local newspapers. He is also a writer in residence at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. When Kevin is not reporting on the world outside Washington for his Wanderland newsletter, you can find him at the rifle range or reading a book about literally almost anything other than politics.
