Agents were pursuing an immigrant when they killed Alex Pretti. Now, he shares his story.

CBS News ^ | January 31, 2026 / 11:00 AM EST | Cara Tabachnick, Camilo Montoya-Galvez

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Jose Huerta Chuma is a man in hiding — and he's also a man in distress. He's been replaying the fatal shooting of Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti over and over again in his mind, wondering if he could have done something differently and if there's something that "would have saved that life."

The 41-year-old immigrant from Ecuador, who said he has been in the U.S. for over two decades, described witnessing the shooting after hiding inside a local business. The Department of Homeland Security has described Huerta Chuma as a criminal living in the U.S. illegally who was the target of the Border Patrol operation that led to the encounter with Pretti on Saturday, Jan. 24.

"I think, maybe if I hadn't gone to that place, or I don't know, a little later or a little earlier, I mean, that never would have happened," Huerta Chuma told CBS News during a phone interview conducted in Spanish.

Asked if he feels some sense of guilt, he said, while crying, his voice fraught with emotion: "I do feel guilty, I do feel bad. I saw stories about the man and I saw a very good person."

DHS officials have described Huerta Chuma as a "violent criminal illegal alien" on the loose. Documents reviewed by CBS News indicate Huerta Chuma's record includes traffic violations, and that he pleaded guilty to a disorderly conduct misdemeanor offense in 2018. The New York Times reported, citing Minnesota court documents, that the plea was linked to a domestic violence arrest, and that the offense was later expunged.

[an amused spectator]

Oh So Pretti was a violent little dirtbag.

Now, he’s a room-temperature violent little dirtbag.

It’s all GOOD.

[willk]

No matter how much you hate the media it is not enough😠.

[Sarah Barracuda]

The criminal illegal is being portrayed as a lil lamb on the news, of course they are, the media is 99 percent commie they want ALL illegals to stay here for power and votes..gee I dont remember the media talking to the family of Iryna who was brutally murdered here, a Ukrainian refugee, I guess her life did NOT matter

[CharlesOConnell]

Black People's Ancestors Didn't Ask to Come Here. Catholic Bishops Have No 'Compassion' For Them. There's No Money in It.

What was Alex Pretti kicking at when he was caught on camera rioting 6 days before he got himself killed?

Alex Pretti was kicking at my little Black girl's right to work, unprotected by "compassionate" Catholic Bishops on the take.

My daughter was crippled with club feet, but rode her little bike 6.5 miles to Taco Bell in Lockeford. She had to ride on Hwy 88 where giant trucks kicked up gravel in her face.

When she got there, she was supposed to get 20 hrs per week, but only got 17-1/2, while the Latina manager's undocumented brother got 80 hours per week on 3 social security cards.

My daughter's great-grandmother, born in 1899, was a child of former slaves, who didn't ask to be enslaved here; as a single mother in the Depression she built a business of 4 Log Cabin restaurants in Stockton and Lodi.

Lodi loses a landmark–1930s Lodi building that has housed the Log Cabin…demolished Thursday (July 13, 2012)

Texas AG Says Catholic Charity in Bishop Seitz’s Diocese Operates `Stash Houses` Concealing Illegal Aliens

Our Black family members haven't been getting any "compassion" from Catholic Bishops who got $100s millions from Biden to bring in endless legions of undocumented migrants like the Taco Bell manager's brother to lower the wages of people who are descended from the founders and builders of our country.

Alex Pretti was kicking at the people who try to protect my daughter's right to live and work.

Don't like La Migra? Change the law.

Or you could be like my friend Mario who is a landscaping foreman; he barely speaks any English but went to all the trouble of becoming naturalized, the same as my grandparents.

We don't go kicking at officers protecting people's right to live and work, unprotected by "compassionate" Catholic Bishops.

We don't take unsafe weapons liable to go off "accidentally" in an unsafe situatuon we ourselves create.

We're here to live and work, not destroy a country millions of people still long to get into.

[Ditto]

No matter how much you hate the media it is not enough😠.

Ditto that.

[SaveFerris]

[Oh So Pretti was a violent little dirtbag.]

Alex chose Pretti Poorly by inserting himself
into a situation that didn’t concern him 🤯

[C210N]

Here is pritti boy about 1/10 second later than your pic, showing the kicked-out taillight.

[Surrounded_too]

Pretti and Good are dead as a result of Obama/Biden regime letting illegals

entrench. I wonder how many people had their life destroyed.

Socialism works. Works to get people destroyed.

[Mark]

Here is a funny speech—Liz Warren saying how calm and caring the idiot that was shot by agent.

https://x.com/mazemoore/status/2016676363277664512?s=46

[Kid Shelleen]

"the plea was linked to a domestic violence arrest"

Add wife beater to the degenerates Dems will die for.

[Chewbarkah]

This crazy notion just hasn’t occured to Jose: If he simply walked over to the feds and said, “Ola, I’m Jose Chuma and I’m turning myself in”, Pretti probably would have survived that day. (But with Pretti looking hard for martrydom, it’s impossible to say whether he would have achieved it in another incident.)

[Freedom4US]

He’s no immigrant, that’s why he is properly termed an illegal alien. Even if he’s been here 20 years. Notice the scare quotes. They are incapable of reporting facts.

Because facts are not good for the cause. Do you want your “news” to be cheerleaders for criminal illegal aliens? And numbnuts that get between the feds and criminal illegal aliens? If local authorities complied with detainer requests in the first place this never would have happened.

They try to warp perceptions by softening the language. One reason they are called “fake news”, they manipulate emotions with the gullible. They are a disgrace and have been for decades.

Don’t be fooled, America

[ansel12]

“””””Huerta Chuma said the agents, who were in a red car without license plates, started to follow him.
“I didn’t run or anything, I left very calm,” he said. “I saw they were with ICE. I knew in my head they were ICE because they turned around so quickly when they [saw] my face.”
Huerta Chuma said he parked his car, got out, and left the vehicle running. He said federal agents started to follow him, and a man at a local business let him inside, locking the door behind him. Huerta Chuma said he hid there for about 4 hours.””””

That is how a defense lawyer would describe that evading law enforcement, it all sounds so calm and casual, especially the part about jumping out of his car with the engine running and fleeing on foot.

Charming-—”he parked his car, got out, and left the vehicle running. He said federal agents started to follow him, and a man at a local business let him inside”

[Lurker]

The “business owner” should be arrested for aiding and abetting.

L

[ridesthemiles]

MAYBE IF HE HAD STAYED IN HIS OWN COUNTRY TO BEGIN WITH-——

[KittyKares]

Pretti and Good are dead as a result of Obama/Biden regime letting illegals entrench.
___________________________________
Absolutely! I would add that the city officials had police stay far away from the violent mobs. Had they been cooperating or at least doing crowd control, ICE could have been doing the job they were trained to do.

[ansel12]

No kidding, that was a serious crime.

[DoodleBob]

The Department of Homeland Security has described Huerta Chuma as a criminal living in the U.S. illegally who was the target of the Border Patrol operation that led to the encounter with Pretti on Saturday, Jan. 24...(Huerta Chuma has) been replaying the fatal shooting of Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti over and over again in his mind, wondering if he could have done something differently and if there's something that "would have saved that life."

[Uncle Miltie]

wondering if he could have done something differently and if there’s something that “would have saved that life.”

YES.

DON’T VIOLATE OUR BORDERS AND LAWS.