Brandon Herrera, a well-known gun influencer with over 4 million YouTube followers, said in a video this week that while it’s tragic that Pretti died, ultimately, he bears some responsibility. “Pretti didn’t deserve to die, but it wasn’t just a baseless execution,” Herrera stated, suggesting without evidence that Pretti aimed to disrupt ICE operations. “If you’re interfering with arrests, that’s a crime. Getting in an officer’s way could escalate to physical force, whether it’s an arrest or just clearing you out, which might lead to a scuffle and, if you’re armed, possibly a fatal shooting.” He described the situation as “lawful but awful.”
Joining him in the video was Cody Garrett, a former police officer known online as Donut Operator. Both took the chance to criticize immigrants, with Herrera saying, “Every news outlet is going to jump on this because it’s the current thing while ignoring the 12 drunk drivers who killed American citizens yesterday, all of whom were illegals or H-1Bs or whatever.” He also mentioned his “friend” Kyle Rittenhouse, a figure often at the center of discussions surrounding gun rights.
On August 25, 2020, Rittenhouse, then 17, traveled from Illinois to a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, armed with an AR-15-style rifle, claiming he was there to protect businesses. That night, he killed two people and injured another.
Critics of ICE’s actions in Minneapolis quickly pointed out the apparent hypocrisy in the right’s defense of Rittenhouse while attacking Pretti. “Kyle Rittenhouse was seen as a conservative hero for showing up at a protest with a weapon, yet this guy, who had a legal permit to carry and had already had his gun taken away, is labeled an instigator while actually trying to help someone,” said Jessica Tarlov, a Democratic strategist, on Fox News this week.
Rittenhouse also weighed in on the debate, posting on X about the “correct way to approach law enforcement when armed,” accompanied by a picture of himself with his hands raised in front of police after the incident. In another post, he stated, “ICE messed up.”
The narrative blaming Pretti was echoed in private Facebook groups run by armed militias, according to data shared with WIRED by the Tech Transparency Project, as well as on extremist Telegram channels. One member of a group called American Patriots expressed condolences but questioned, “Why did he go to these riots armed with a gun and extra magazines if he wasn’t planning on using them?”
Some extremist groups, like the far-right Boogaloo movement, criticized comments about carrying weapons at protests. “To the ‘don’t bring a gun to a protest’ crowd, screw you,” one member wrote on Facebook. “To the turncoats thinking disarming is the answer, screw you. To the federal government that I’ve seen murder citizens just for saying no to them, screw you. Shall not be infringed.”
