AI-altered pic of Alex Pretti is being widely circulated after his killing by Border Patrol
A picture of Alex Pretti that was apparently AI-altered to make him look more clean cut has been widely circulating among protesters, and even some news outlets in the wake of his killing by Border Patrol agents.Pretti, a 37-year-old armed ICU nurse, was gunned down by two federal agents in Minneapolis on Jan.24 while a larger swarm of other officers were subduing him.The Service Employees International Union, which Pretti was a member of, first shared a snapshot of his staff photo at the VA hospital where he worked in Minneapolis on Monday.
That same day, protesters and media outlets latched onto a cleaner version of the portrait that was tweaked by AI and propped it up as their representation of choice in their coverage.The edited picture boosted the saturation and made Pretti appear a few shades more tan than he actually was.It reshaped virtually every aspect of his face, including the angle of his jaw, the bent of his nose, and his hairline.Some speculated that whoever altered the picture to begin with was trying to make Pretti look more “pretty” so he could seem like a more appealing “poster boy” for the anti-ICE movement.Another viral photo that fooled many showed an agent holding a gun to the back of Pretti’s head execution-style while he tried to push himself up off the concrete — thought one of the agents in that pic didn’t have a head, a tell-tale sign it was fake.Illinois Sen.
Dick Durbin displayed the blown-up picture, which he believed to be a real account from the shooting, on the Senate floor while “[demanding] the Trump Administration take accountability for its actions,” according to his post on X account.“I’m going to show a photo of that scene, which is graphic, but I’m afraid it’s necessary to appreciate the horror of the moment,” Durbin warned before he revealed the doctored image.Federal authorities allege that Pretti “violently resisted” when the officers were disarming him, but videos of his final moments onl...