MINNEAPOLIS — Alex Pretti, the intensive care nurse killed by federal agents last weekend, was swarmed and tackled by officers in another encounter 11 days earlier, according to footage obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune.

Pretti, 37, was captured on bystander video Jan. 13 amid a crowd of whistle-blowing observers, cursing immigration agents as an unmarked convoy swarmed a south Minneapolis street corner.

A spokesperson for his family and the family’s attorney have verified that the man seen in the video is Pretti.

Pretti stood in the crosswalk and flipped the middle finger of both hands toward an SUV carrying officers clad in tactical gear. One jumped out of the back passenger seat and charged toward him, grabbing Pretti by the jacket and tackling him as other agents piled on, according to the footage.

Onlookers screamed for them to stop while at least four agents struggled with Pretti on the pavement. He managed to slip out of his coat and break free after about 25 seconds. The officers retreated moments later, without bringing him into custody.

“He got slammed to the ground pretty hard,” said Max Shapiro, a witness who filmed the interaction.

A digital forensic analysis by the Star Tribune found that the man targeted by agents on Jan. 13 shared a striking physical resemblance to Pretti. He also wore some of the same clothing Pretti did the day he was killed: a plain black hat, sunglasses, brown coat and a beige hooded long-sleeve shirt.

“A week before Alex was gunned down in the street — despite posing no threat to anyone — he was violently assaulted by a group of ICE agents," Steve Schleicher, an attorney representing the family, said in a statement after reviewing footage and still images from the incident.

The earlier altercation occurred at the intersection of E. 36th Street and Park Av. in Minneapolis’ Powderhorn neighborhood — less than half a mile from the spot where an ICE officer shot Renee Good in her vehicle the week prior.

Shapiro, a Minneapolis-based corporate tax attorney, rushed to the area just before 10:30 a.m. after Signal group chats alerted him to ICE enforcement activity near his young son’s Spanish-Immersion daycare.

Shapiro said he witnessed several in the crowd of 15 to 20 people lobbing snowballs at agents. Then, he said, a bearded man positioned in the street — wearing a brown coat, black hat and sunglasses — proceeded to kick out the taillight of an agent’s SUV.

Shapiro’s account matches events captured in separate video posted to social media Wednesday afternoon by conservative influencer Nick Sortor, showing the encounter from a different angle.

Shapiro’s recording begins seconds later when Pretti is seen flipping off the car full of federal officers. One beelines straight toward him and spins him to the ground. Other agents shoot pepper balls, toss smoke canisters and threaten the use of chemical irritants in an attempt to keep the angry crowd back.

Three other officers pounce on the man, appearing to strike him while restrained.

The reaction to Pretti’s smashing of the tail light seemed overly aggressive, Shapiro later told the Star Tribune.

“Is it grounds for getting out of a car after you’ve already packed up and decided that you were going to leave and then assault a person and harass a group of observers? Probably not,” Shapiro said, noting that Pretti did not appear to fight back, only attempt to flee.

Eventually, Pretti wrestles out of his coat and runs away, rejoining the small group of protesters.

The 2 ½-minute video ends with a caravan of federal vehicles leaving the scene as smoke billows in the intersection. Shapiro approaches Pretti, who he did not know, and asks if he’s OK.

Pretti says that he is, before turning to the dispersing crowd. “Are we all OK? Are we all safe?” he calls out to the dozen or so bystanders who remain.

The prior encounter, first reported by CNN, allegedly began after Pretti stopped his car while observing ICE activity in the neighborhood. He joined a throng of demonstrators who began shouting and blowing their whistles as agents chased several people on foot.

CNN claimed that Pretti suffered a broken rib after after five agents tackled him and another leaned on his back about a week before his death. The story did not disclose when or where this allegedly happened.

U.S Department of Homeland Security officials told CNN they have “no record of this incident.”

A representative for the family told the Star Tribune on Jan. 28 that he could not confirm the extent of those injuries. However, Pretti did tell relatives about a previous scuffle with federal law enforcement that tore his jacket, shirt and boots, the spokesman said. In the aftermath, Pretti complained of pain related to unknown injuries, he said, but did not seek medical treatment.

Nearly two weeks later, Pretti joined another protest outside Glam Doll Donuts, about two miles northeast from the previous incident. He pulled out his phone and walked in the street, approaching agents as he recorded their interactions with bystanders.

“Do not push them into the traffic,” a deep voice, apparently Pretti’s, chides an officer. The agent responds by shoving someone toward the sidewalk.

Seconds later, as Pretti attempts to help a female bystander who’s fallen into a nearby snowbank, several agents wrestle him to the ground. An officer removes the 9 mm pistol from Pretti’s holster just before shots are fired.

It’s not clear whether any of the agents involved recognized Pretti — or previously encountered him during enforcement operations.

On Saturday, as images of Pretti flooded social media following his death, Shapiro couldn’t shake the notion that “this guy looks familiar.”

Rewatching his earlier video with the knowledge that the man he met had died at the hands of government agents left him shaken. If it could happen to Pretti, he thought, it could happen to anyone.

Yet, Shapiro wasn’t surprised to learn that Pretti had continued protesting.

“People feel so adamantly about how wrong this is,” Shapiro said, referring to the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown.

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