Question

The photo of the gun allegedly owned by the allegedly armed man executed by ICE is FAKE...

Answer 1

From the research I’ve conducted, this statement appears to be false. The only evidence supporting the claim that the photo of the firearm was fake is a screenshot of an image search of the firearm with a Reddit post titled “Weekly Discussion Megathread” that was supposedly posted 5 days prior to the incident involving Alex Pretti. According to this Snopes article: "We found no evidence the image the DHS shared circulated online before the Jan. 24 shooting or that it was a pre-existing stock image.” However, in the article, it was stated that the metadata for the photo could not be obtained to confirm the legitimacy of the statement that the photo that the DHS shared is not the firearm found on Pretti. It is also important to add that many photos surrounding this incident are AI-generated or altered in some way. But from my research, the photo being questioned is not AI-generated or altered. 

(Tagging this as Exaggerated/Misleading due to the fact that the metadata on the photo could not be obtained to confirm the legitimacy of it)

Source: 

https://www.snopes.com/news/2026/01/26/alex-pretti-gun-dhs-stock-photo/

Answer 2

The photo of the gun showed in the article is not fake, although this is misleading. The photo released by the Department oh Homeland Security (DHS) was a real photo of a fun that was at the scene. However, the issue is that video from the altercation that day shows that the gun that was found on Pretti was removed and placed far away from his reach prior to the police firing at him. The gun was present at the scene but it did not pose any imminent threat to the officers. 

Links used: The Justice Department has opened a federal civil rights probe into the killing of Alex Pretti, AI image of Alex Pretti’s killing is the latest altered photo amid ICE surge in Minneapolis, Video Analyses at Odds with DHS Statements on Minneapolis Shooting