Brandon Herrera, a prominent gun influencer with more than 4 million followers on YouTube, said in a video posted this week that while it was unfortunate that Preeti died, it was ultimately her fault.
“Priti did not deserve to die, but it also wasn’t just a baseless execution,” Herrera said, adding without evidence that Priti was intended to disrupt ICE operations. “If you’re interfering with an arrest and things like that, that’s a felony. If you get in the officer’s way, it will probably escalate to physical force, whether it’s arresting you or just pushing you out of the way, which can then lead to a fight, which, if you’re armed, can lead to a fatal shooting.” He described the situation as “legitimate but terrible”.
Herrera was joined in the video by former police officer and fellow gun influencer Cody Garrett, known online as the Donut Operator.
Both men took the opportunity to ridicule immigrants, with Herrera saying, “Every news outlet is going to jump on this because it’s the current thing and they’re going to ignore the 12 drunk drivers who killed American citizens yesterday, who were all illegals or H-1Bs or whatever.”
Herrera also referenced his “friend” Kyle Rittenhouse, who has become the center of much of the debate about the shooting.
On August 25, 2020, Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time, went from his home in Illinois to a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, brandishing an AR-15-style rifle, claiming he was there to protect local businesses. That night he killed two people and shot another in the arm.
Critics of ICE’s actions in Minneapolis immediately highlighted what they saw as the hypocrisy of Rittenhouse’s right-wing defense and attacks on Pretty.
Democratic strategist Jessica Tarlov said on Fox News this week, “Kyle Rittenhouse was a conservative hero who was actually carrying a weapon at a protest, but this guy who had a legal permit to carry a weapon and had already removed his gun is going to be an incitement to some people when he was actually going to help a woman.”
Rittenhouse also joined the debate, writing on the “ICE screwed up,” he said in another post.
According to data shared with WIRED by the Tech Transparency Project, claims that Preeti was guilty were repeated in private Facebook groups run by armed militias, as well as on extremist Telegram channels.
“I feel sorry for him and his family,” wrote a member of the Facebook group American Patriots. “My question though is, if he wasn’t planning on using a gun and extra magazines then why did he go into these riots armed with a gun and extra magazines?”
Some extremist groups, such as the far-right Boogaloo movement, have been highly critical of the administration’s comments on being armed at a protest.
“To the ‘don’t bring guns to protests’ crowd, fuck you,” a member of a private boogaloo group wrote on Facebook this week. “To those who think disarmament is the answer and don’t think it will happen to you, fuck you. To the federal government that I have seen murder civilians just for saying no, fuck you. It will not be violated.”
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