Look out for this photo claiming to show Alex Pretti dressed in drag

In late January 2026, after 37-year-old Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretti died at the hands of federal agents, a photograph spread online claiming to show Pretti in drag. 

The image showed a man covered in tattoos wearing a silver skirt, a bustier and a colorful wig. Snopes readers sent us numerous emails asking us to verify whether the photograph was real and whether it depicted Pretti. 

(X user @KConservanator)

The above image appeared to be authentic, meaning it was not created or edited using artificial intelligence or other tools, but it does not show Pretti dressed in drag.

The image spread online several days before Pretti was shot and killed, claiming to show a member of the anti-fascist (antifa) movement named Kyle Wagner. The individual in the photograph also looks noticeably different from Pretti. As such, we've rated the claim miscaptioned.

We ran the image through AI-detection tools SightEngine and Hive Moderation. Both determined it was highly unlikely that the image was AI-generated. (Research shows AI-detection software is imperfect, and readers should consider the tools' results with skepticism.)

Using Google's reverse-image search tools, we found examples of the same photograph posted on X days before Pretti was killed. One X post also shared another close-up image of the person in question, claiming it showed Wagner. 

The person pictured has a chest tattoo with three arrows pointing downward in a circle toward a "Resistance" tattoo. The three-arrow symbol was first used by an anti-Nazi paramilitary group in the 1930s and is now associated with the antifa movement, The Associated Press reported in 2019.

In a Jan. 10 TikTok video of Wagner introducing himself, he appears to have the same three-arrow chest tattoo as the person dressed in drag in the photo. Wagner identifies himself in the video as antifa and calls on people in Minneapolis to "confront" the federal agents. 

We searched for social media profiles linked to Wagner based on videos others reposted from his account. A report by the fact-checking outlet Lead Stories stated that Wagner posted on his Facebook account after Pretti's shooting took place, writing: "Do not pretend like this is far away or anyone other than a normal average American f***ing citizen that was standing up for their f***ing first amendment, right."

As of this writing, possible social media accounts belonging to Wagner and the above post appeared to have been deleted, meaning we couldn't independently verify the content he shared. We were unable to contact Wagner directly to confirm that he is the person in the photo, though available evidence suggests a match.

Available photographs of Pretti show he had no such tattoos on his neck, chest or his forearms. Furthermore, Pretti and the person in the picture appear to have differently shaped noses. 

Pretti had been participating in protests after the killing of Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in early January 2026. The Department of Homeland Security claimed he approached federal officers with a handgun. Bystander videos show he was holding only a phone, and news analysis of the videos showed agents had already secured the handgun Pretti was carrying before shooting him. Pretti's family told The Associated Press that he had a permit to carry a concealed handgun in Minnesota.

For further reading, Snopes has previously covered AI-enhanced images of Pretti's shooting that circulated online, a claim that DHS shared a stock photo instead of a real image of Pretti's gun, and an authentic video of a federal agent searching Pretti's body for his gun.