On Saturday, December 24th, in Minneapolis, 37-year-old ICU nurse at Minneapolis Veteran’s Affairs, Alex Pretti was shot by ICE agents during a protest. Border patrol agents have recently been sweeping across Minneapolis, and Pretti had been concerned with the actions of ICE. Similar to Renee Nicole Good, 36, who was also shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, Pretti “loved this country,” but he had “hated” the recent crackdown on immigration by the Trump Administration.
Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, said that Pretti “wanted to do maximum damage” and “massacre law enforcement”. The border patrol agents were said to have acted in self-defense, as Noem also stated that Pretti approached agents with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun.
On the contrary, according to Chief Brian O’Hara, Pretti was a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry it concealed in Minnesota. A video released by an anonymous woman showed the events that occurred during the shooting. In the video Pretti can visibly be seen helping two women that were shoved by an agent, before being tackled to the ground, pepper sprayed, then shot over 10 times. His handgun had also been confiscated before the shooting. “Four or five agents had him on the ground, and they just started shooting him. They shot him so many times. I don’t know why they shot him. He as only helping. I was five feet from him and they just shot him,” the woman reported.
In 2001 he had received his nursing license active through March 2026, according to the state records. For his past experience he served as a Junior System at the University of Minnesota Medical School, found in his LinkedIn profile. Pretti was not a man “involved with law enforcement”, as he had no criminal records or tons of traffic tickets. His family had also recalled him not being the violent type. Dr. Dmitri Drekonja, a man who worked with Pretti and shared similar outdoor interests in mountain biking, knew Pretti as an ally since 2018 stating that, “He was the type of person you enjoyed being around and the notion that this helpful, smiling joking guy was being labeled a terrorist? It’s galling.”
A makeshift memorial was created the following day, as his family and residents of Minneapolis came to mourn. His family strived for justice towards their son, as conflicting information continues to surround the shooting investigation.
