Brandon Herrera, a prominent gun influencer with more than 4 million followers on YouTube, said in a video posted this week that while it was unfortunate that Pretti died, ultimately it was his fault.
“Pretti didn’t deserve to die, but this wasn’t just a baseless execution either,” Herrera said, adding without evidence that Pretti’s goal was to disrupt ICE operations. “If you interfere with arrests and things like that, it’s a crime. If you interfere with the damn officer, it will probably be escalated to physical force, whether it’s arresting you or just getting out of the way, which can then lead to a fight, which, if you’re armed, can lead to a fatal shooting.” He called the situation “lawful but horrible.”
Herrera was joined in the video by former police officer and fellow gun influencer Cody Garrett, known online as the Donut Operator.
Both men took the opportunity to mock immigrants, with Herrera saying that “all the media is going to seize on it because it’s news and they’re going to ignore the 12 drunk drivers who killed, you know, American citizens yesterday, who were all illegals or H-1Bs or whatever.”
Herrera also referenced his “friend” Kyle Rittenhouse, who has become the center of much of the debate over the shooting.
On August 25, 2020, Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time, drove from his home in Illinois to a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, brandishing an AR-15-style rifle, saying he was there to protect local businesses. He killed two people and shot another in the arm that night.
Critics of ICE’s actions in Minneapolis were quick to point out what they saw as the hypocrisy of the right’s defense of Rittenhouse and attacks on Pretti.
“Kyle Rittenhouse was a conservative hero for showing up at a protest with a gun, but this guy who had a legal carry permit and had his gun already taken away is some people’s view as an instigator, when he was actually going to help a woman,” Jessica Tarlov, Democratic strategist, said on Fox News this week.
Rittenhouse also waded into the debate, write on: “The right way to approach law enforcement when armed,” above a photo of him with his hands raised in front of police after killing two people. He added another message that “ICE screwed up.”
The claim that Pretti was responsible was repeated in private Facebook groups led by armed militiasaccording to data shared with WIRED by the Tech Transparency Project, as well as on extremist Telegram channels.
“I feel sorry for him and his family,” wrote a member of a Facebook group called American Patriots. “My question though, why did he go to these riots armed with a pistol and extra magazines if he had no intention of using them?”
Some extremist groups, such as the far-right Boogaloo movement, have been highly critical of the administration’s comments about being armed at a protest.
“To those who say ‘don’t bring a gun to a protest,’ fuck you,” a member of a private Boogaloo group wrote on Facebook this week. “To the fucking flippers who think disarmament is the answer and don’t think it would happen to you too, fuck you. To the federal government who I’ve seen murder citizens just for telling them no, fuck you. Will not be raped.”
