British News Agency

According to the records, Ochoa, 43, and Gutierrez, 35, were the agents who fired their weapons during the confrontation last weekend that led to Pretti’s death. The incident sparked widespread protests and renewed calls for a criminal investigation into federal immigration enforcement practices. In the immediate aftermath of Pretti’s killing, the Trump administration repeatedly made false claims about the incident.

At the time of the incident, both agents were participating in Operation Metro Surge, a large-scale immigration enforcement initiative launched in December. The operation deployed numerous armed and masked agents across Minneapolis as part of a citywide sweep.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which employs both agents, refused to publicly release the names of the agents involved and provided very little additional information about the incident. The lack of transparency prompted further scrutiny, especially as the incident occurred just days after another immigration agent fatally shot Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, during a protest in Minneapolis.

Pretti’s death and the secrecy surrounding the agents’ identities emerged amid a growing national debate over Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies. Law enforcement actions in cities across the country have included violent encounters involving both immigrants and U.S. citizens, carried out by agents controversially allowed to conceal their identities with masks.

After days of protests and pressure from lawmakers, the Justice Department announced on Friday that its civil rights division had opened an investigation.