Alex Pretti Kicks Tail Light on Federal Agents' SUV Days Before Death, New Video

Alex Pretti busted the tail light of a federal agent's SUV days before he was shot to death ... and the tense exchange -- while he was armed -- played out on camera.

The Minneapolis ICU nurse, who was killed by Customs and Border Protection officers Saturday, appears in a video reportedly recorded January 13 and published by The News Movement. Pretti's wearing a remarkably similar outfit to the one he wore 11 days later when he was shot.

The clip starts with Pretti yelling and appearing to spit on the vehicle as federal officers are driving away from the area ... before he brings his foot up and kicks and shatters the rear right tail light, leaving it hanging by cords.

Agents jump out of the SUV and chase Pretti down ... slamming him to the ground while a crowd gathers around them and screams at the agents.

Inexplicably, after the tense altercation ends and Pretti's able to get back to his feet, agents just let him go ... leaving him on the street corner despite the damage he's done to the vehicle.

A rep for the Pretti family tells TMZ ... they knew about the incident on January 13. The rep says Alex sustained injuries but did not get medical care.

As Pretti pulls away from the agents, you can see the butt of a handgun in the rear waistband of his pants -- just as it was during his fatal encounter with the feds.

Steve Schleicher, the attorney for the Pretti family tells TMZ ... "A week before Alex was gunned down in the street -- despite posing no threat to anyone -- he was violently assaulted by a group of ICE agents. Nothing that happened a full week before could possibly have justified Alex’s killing at the hands of ICE on Jan 24."

As we've reported ... 11 days after that initial clash, feds again wrestled Pretti to the ground on a city street ... and a Border Patrol agent and a Customs and Border Protection officer fired a series of shots at Pretti. He died at the scene.

Protests have exploded all over Minnesota and the rest of the country in the days after the killing. Trump administration officials have already publicly labeled Pretti a "domestic terrorist."