They had barely absorbed the horror of the video when the narrative machine roared to life. Instead of condolences, they heard their son described as a domestic terrorist — a man supposedly bent on harming officers. The same young man they recognized in the footage, arms outstretched, trying to shield a woman from pepper spray, was being recast as a monster before the country.
In their anguish, the Pretti family did the only thing left to them: they spoke. They condemned the administration’s claims as “reprehensible and disgusting,” pleading for the world to see what the images already showed. Their son was not charging agents; he was protecting someone weaker, as he’d always done. At a growing memorial in Minneapolis, strangers now whisper his name, not as the caricature in official statements, but as a human being whose final act was an instinct to protect.