Harvey Levin Wonders How Many Times Alex Pretti Clashed With Feds Before Death

The new video of Alex Pretti busting the taillight of a federal vehicle days before being shot to death is very critical to the shooting ... but not for the reasons you might think.

Harvey Levin's been stewing on the new footage of Pretti violently clashing with federal immigration officers -- with a gun in the waistband of his pants -- 11 days before being shot and killed by CBP agents ... and he's got a lot of thoughts, and even more questions.

First off, Harvey says Alex clearly crossed a line and is lucky he didn't get arrested ... and he's also giving these agents props for using the appropriate amount of force with Alex.

The fact Alex had a gun in this encounter, 11 days before the shooting, blows up the Trump theory that Alex showed up Saturday with the intent to massacre officers and inflict maximum damage ... Harvey says Alex always seemed to carry a gun, but never gave any indication he would ever use it.

Frankly, Alex was hot as fish grease in this tense interaction 11 days before the fatal shooting ... and he never even reached for the gun as he kicked, spit and jawed at federal agents. It makes the case Alex wasn't planning on using the gun 11 days later, contrary to what Trump admin officials claimed.

Alex looked pretty committed to protesting immigration agents ... we've seen him do it at least two times ... so it begs the question, how many times, if any, did he clash with federal agents in the 11 days before this instance and the shooting?!?

Multiple federal agencies were involved in these two instances ... and it's fair to wonder if Alex encountered any of the agents who later pounced on him and shot him in the days leading up to that fatal interaction.

Alex was a tall, imposing guy who was an annoyance to officers ... and he was wearing similar clothing in the two interactions ... so Harvey's wondering if there are any other videos out there showing Alex clashing with feds in the 11 days before the taillight and the shooting. If there are, it may mean the feds knew who he was, and things reached a boiling point by the time of the shooting.

The agent's reaction to Alex in the moments before Saturday's shooting is interesting in itself ... they seemed to take their attention off the women he swooped in to protect, and trained all their aggression on him.

This is key, too ... Harvey believes when agents noticed Alex's gun, they viewed it as an excuse and not a threat. They may have been angry at him for past interactions, and it could have been an excuse to do what they wanted to do to him.