In 1992, I was the managing partner in a cotton warehouse in Cordele, Georgia. We were getting alarms during the night and I was worried about a hobo breaking in, starting a fire to keep warm and burning up 15,000 bales of cotton.
So I decide to spend the night and carried a 12ga shotgun with me. Sure enough, close to midnight that freaking alarm went off. I jump up and go traipsing around to see what was going on. As I was walking around one of the warehouses back towards the office, a police car rolls up with their headlights on me. Two cops get out of the car and order me to put the shotgun down. I could not see them obviously, so I have no idea if they were drawn on me or not.
I did not argue for my 2A rights.
I did not try to explain I was a partner.
I did not try to explain I was on my property or anything else for that matter.
I put the gun on the ground.
They then came on up, id me and we talked about the circumstances. They let me pick my shotgun up and we all went on our merry ways after a few more minutes.
From everything I have seen, Pretti did not in any shape, form or fashion, deserve to die. The ICE agents appear to have overreacted and Pretti is dead. I do believe that if Pretti had really been cognizant of what his sidearm was going to do in ramping up the tension, subsequent risks, and reacted accordingly, he would be alive. That is NOT a defense of the agents, it is nothing more than my common sense saying he would be alive today if he had been better prepared mentally.
