A witness to the Jan. 24 fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has come forward, saying he feels guilty for witnessing the tragic encounter.
Jose Huerta Chuma, an eyewitness to the Jan. 24 shooting of Alex Pretty by federal agents, pleads guilty to witnessing the incident. January 31, 2026. REUTERS/Jack Taylor (REUTERS)Jose Huerta Chuma, the man who was chased by federal agents when Pretty was shot to death, is now in hiding. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Huerta Chuma is an illegal immigrant from Ecuador.
In an interview with CBS, the 41-year-old immigrant said he has lived in the United States for more than 20 years. He said he was hiding in a nearby shop when he witnessed the shooting that led to Pretty’s death.
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“It might never have happened.”Huerta Chuma described watching the collision that ended with Pretti’s death and replaying the moments over and over again. “I feel guilty, I feel bad,” Chuma said, her voice breaking.
“I think, if I hadn’t gone to that place, or I don’t know, a little later or a little earlier, I mean, it never would have happened,” he said.
DHS officials described Huerta Chuma as a “violent criminal illegal alien” who is at large. According to records examined by CBS News, Huerta Chuma has a history of traffic violations and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct in 2018.
According to the New York Times, which cited court records from Minnesota, the plea was linked to an arrest for domestic abuse, which was later dismissed. Huerta Chuma described the domestic violence case as an argument with his wife at the time.
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Huerta Chuma has never been incarcerated in the state, according to a statement from the Minnesota Department of Corrections, which said there were no criminal convictions in his case.
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“I’m not a criminal”Huerta Chuma immigrated from Ecuador in her twenties in the 2000s. She worked as a rideshare driver while raising her American-born children, CBS News reported.
Huerta Chuma was working on the day of the shooting. “I’m not a criminal. I was working that day. I was going to make a delivery,” he said.
Huerta Chuma claimed to have passed a vehicle without a license plate, traveling along Nicollet Avenue while traveling in the opposite direction. He described an “agent” looking at him from the car and starting to follow him.
He said, “I didn’t run or do anything, I was very calm. I saw them with ICE. I knew in my head they were ICE because they turned around so fast when they [saw] My face.”
He left the car and hid for four hours inside a local business that helped him.
Huerta Chuma said she saw Pretti arrive and start filming, along with a Border Patrol officer shoving a woman. He claims the agents grabbed Pretty’s gun and threw him to the ground.
“It happened so fast,” he said, adding that he didn’t see Pretty reach for his gun or try to harm the agents.
He saw the ambulance arrive, but he said he knew “it was too late.”
