By Nick Valencia | January 28, 2026
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA— In the hours after Alex Pretti was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday, the city did what American cities increasingly do in moments of crisis: it armored up.
Law enforcement agencies flooded the area around 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue. Barricades went up. Tactical formations hardened. And among the vehicles and uniforms, something else stood out, unmistakable to anyone who has covered protests in the last decade.
An LRAD.
The Long Range Acoustic Device is not subtle. It doesn’t blend into the background. It sits atop vehicles like a warning: this is no longer crowd control as persuasion, but as force. Designed for military use and increasingly adopted by domestic law enforcement, LRADs are capable of emitting ear-splitting sound waves that experts say can disorient, cause pain, and in some cases lead to lasting neurological effects.
“We use our LRAD for dispersal orders”
Lieutenant Mike Lee, a public information officer with the Minnesota State Patrol, agreed to speak with me by phone.
When asked directly about the LRAD visible in my footage, Lt. Lee acknowledged the agency possesses and uses the device.
“We use our LRAD for dispersal orders when an assembly has been declared unlawful,” he told me. “We advise people to leave the area, and so we can make public announcements through that system.”
LRADs are not just loudspeakers. They are designed to do more than amplify a voice. They can emit focused acoustic energy with sound waves capable of overwhelming the human nervous system.
Was the device used that way on the morning Alex Pretti was killed?
“No, not to my knowledge,” Lee said.
I asked again, more narrowly: had the Minnesota State Patrol ever used the LRAD in that capacity—anywhere, at any time?
“No,” he replied.
The unanswered question
The presence of the LRAD alone would be notable. But it wasn’t the only anomaly that morning.
While filming near 26th and Nicollet, my phone abruptly died. My livestream ended without warning. At the time, I assumed the simplest explanation: a drained battery amid chaos.
Later that night, at the Whipple Federal Building, I encountered another individual who told me something similar had happened to them, also within a block of my earlier location. Their livestream had shut down unexpectedly.
At a vigil for Alex Pretti later that evening, a third person, someone who did not know me or the other individual, described the same experience.
Three people. Independent of one another. Same outcome.
I raised this directly with Lieutenant Lee.
“No, we didn’t use any kind of technology like that,” he said when asked whether state authorities had deployed tools capable of disrupting livestreams or mobile devices. He added that he was not aware of the State Patrol possessing such technology at all.
When I asked whether federal agencies, who appeared to be coordinating on the ground, might have access to or deploy that kind of capability, Lee declined to speculate.
“You’ll have to reach out to them,” he said. “I’m not sure what equipment they use or their tactics.”
That answer is not an admission. But it is not a denial, either.
Militarization by presence
To be clear: the Minnesota State Patrol says the LRAD was used only to issue dispersal orders. They deny using it as a weapon. They deny deploying any technology to interfere with livestreams.
And yet, the larger point remains.
You do not roll out military-grade acoustic devices into civilian neighborhoods by accident. You do not deploy them unless you are prepared to use them—or at least to let the public believe you might.
An LRAD doesn’t have to be fired at full capacity to do its job. Its very existence communicates intent. It tells residents, protesters, and journalists alike that the rules have changed. That public space can be transformed, instantly, into a controlled zone.
That message is received loudly and clearly.
