Dean Cain, best known for his portrayal of Superman in the Nineties TV classic Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, has spoken out in defense of the federal immigration officer who fatally shot ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis over the weekend.
Cain, 59, who announced last year that he was joining ICE to support President Donald Trump’s illegal immigration crackdown, addressed the tragedy in a recent interview, saying that while he didn’t know all the events leading up to the shooting, “I do know that law enforcement — certainly ICE and Border Patrol — have been under a tremendous amount of pressure and attacks.”
“And they’re getting tremendous abuse,” he told TMZ, “from what I completely believe is a 100 percent organized opposition very, very —actually pretty sophisticated. I think we’re gonna uncover that as it goes on.”
He suggested that unless you’re there in the moment with the agents, “it’s hard to understand” their use of force.
“But if someone is committing a felony, which would be obstructing law enforcement, ICE, federal agents from doing their job, impeding and obstructing, that’s a felony and perhaps they were just trying to take him down at that point in time,” Cain continued.
“He certainly wasn’t there just being a peaceful protester,” he added of Pretti, “and it was a very bad idea to engage physically with federal law enforcement while armed.”
“He’s standing between law enforcement officers and that woman, that’s a mistake in its own own right and doing it while armed is a bad, bad idea.”
TMZ founder and managing editor Harvey Levin pushed back against Cain’s claims, arguing that Pretti had simply been helping two women who had been pushed to the ground by agents. “How is this impeding anything?” he asked. “I don’t understand that.”
“How many times had he had communication with law enforcement and officers before that moment? Why was he standing in the middle of the street? There’s a lot of questions that need to be answered,” Cain replied. “He may have been impeding — he may have become himself a target just for standing in front of ICE vehicles. I don’t know.”
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Open-sourced video capturing the incident shows Pretti, 37, holding a phone and moving to assist individuals on the sidewalk near the agents, who then began pepper-spraying the group. The victim is then tackled by at least five agents and dragged to the ground. The footage shows the Border Patrol agents struggling with Pretti on the ground and striking him when a gunshot is heard. A moment later, an agent fires multiple shots while Pretti is down on the pavement.
The federal government — and President Trump — claims that Pretti approached agents with the intent to carry out an attack with a pistol, which they claim was recovered from the scene of the incident.
They have not provided evidence that he ever drew the weapon, and have declined to answer questions offering an in-depth timeline of how the confrontation unfolded.
Carrying a licensed handgun with a permit is legal in Minnesota.
Turning the blame on Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and “all the city and state officials who are not cooperating with ICE and are calling them Gestapo and modern day Nazis,” Cain said: “That rhetoric is emboldening people — and they’re telling them to fight them in the streets and do these things — that is the root cause of the problem.”
Levin stepped in to clarify that he’s never heard Walz or Frey tell citizens to “fight them in the streets.” He then went on to ask Cain’s opinion about Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s claims that Pretti was “brandishing a gun,” followed by Immigration Chief Gregory Bovino saying that “he was trying to massacre officers,” and White House Advisor Stephen Miller labeling him a “domestic terrorist.”
“I’m not aware of that rhetoric, and it doesn’t sound like it’s helping tamp down the temperature,” Cain said. “But I don’t know specifically what they were referring to, or what information Kristi Noem has — obviously, I will be working for her, and I do believe in her very much.”
Acknowledging that he didn’t see “any brandishing” in the clips he’d watched, he emphasized that he doesn’t agree with “overblown rhetoric on either side.”
Cain shot to fame with his portrayal of Superman in the four-season TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, which aired from 1993 to 1997. He later returned to the Superman universe in the six-season CW show Supergirl, starring as Dr. Jeremiah Danvers, the adoptive father of Superman’s cousin Supergirl/Kara Danvers (Melissa Benoist).
He’s since stepped away from acting and turned his focus to law enforcement and political advocacy, supporting the Trump administration.
