MINNEAPOLIS — Alex Pretti, the Minneapolis man fatally shot by a federal agent Saturday, was a 37-year-old intensive care nurse whose family remembered him as a “kind-hearted soul” who cared deeply for the patients he served at a Veterans Affairs facility.
“Alex wanted to make a difference in this world,” his parents said in a statement released through the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party “Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact.”
Pretti was shot just before 9 a.m. after a heated confrontation between agents and protesters who opposed the government’s immigration enforcement tactics, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said at a news conference.
The Department of Homeland Security said officers with U.S. Border Patrol were conducting an operation when they were approached by Pretti. According to their account, an agent shot him in self-defense after he violently resisted efforts to disarm him. Videos taken from various angles appear to contradict parts of the department’s version of events.
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O’Hara said local officials believe the man was a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry. Family members told The Associated Press that Pretti owned a handgun and a concealed carry permit in Minnesota.
Pretti’s parents, Michael and Susan, rejected federal officials’ account, calling the “lies” told about their son “sickening and reprehensible.”
Protesters retreat after federal agents fire tear gas Saturday in Minneapolis.Stephen Maturen / Getty Images
In the statement, they said it was clear their son was not holding a gun in the moments before the shooting. He had a phone in one hand, they said, and his other hand was raised above his head “while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper-sprayed.”
“Please get the truth out about our son,” they said. “He was a good man.”
In videos obtained by NBC News, Pretti checks on a protester who had been pushed by federal officers. An altercation followed, and Pretti was dragged to the ground and surrounded by officers.
A series of gunshots can be heard before the officers are seen backing away from Pretti.
Pretti graduated from Green Bay Preble High School in 2006 and from the University of Minnesota in 2011, according to those schools.
State records show that he was registered as a nurse in Minnesota as of 2021. His license is set to expire on March 31.
Dr. Aasma Shaukat said she hired Pretti in 2014 as a research assistant in the clinical research program at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System.
“He really wanted to work in the health care field, with patients, and he thought veterans were particularly vulnerable,” Shaukat told NBC News. “He was a team player and got along with everyone.”
Over those six years on the job, Shaukat said, Pretti always stepped up and looked for opportunities to help — describing him as the type who held the elevator for others or assisted people who looked lost in the hospital find their way. Pretti left the hospital briefly to attend nursing school but returned as an intensive care nurse after graduation.
“He had a strong sense of duty,” she added, noting that she wrote a letter of support for him when he decided to go to nursing school.
That sense of duty also spurred him to participate in the protests in Minneapolis after George Floyd was killed in 2020, Shaukat said.
“He did have a strong sense of civic responsibility, and he was willing to stand up for things that he thought were wrong,” she said, later adding that she never knew him to be an instigator of violence.
AFGE Professional Local 3669 — a union that represents federal employees, including those affiliated with the Minneapolis VA Health Care System — confirmed Pretti was a member and called his death “devastating.”
Jeanne Wiener, one of Pretti’s neighbors who has known him for about five years, described him as a “gentle, good person” who posed no threat to anyone.
“He would never, ever attack a police officer,” she said, adding that she was surprised to learn that Pretti was a gun owner because he was so “gentle.”
Robert Alver, who met Pretti at the University of Minnesota in 2009, said, “There is no way on God’s green Earth that he would ever be going anywhere to hurt somebody. He described Pretti as always trying to be helpful and “everything you would want in a colleague and friend.”
Mac Randolph of Minneapolis said Pretti cared for his father, Air Force veteran Terry Randolph, during his last moments at the Veterans Affairs facility in Richfield, Minnesota.
“Alex was there the final night providing morphine and pain relief,” Randolph said. “Just the sweetest person you can imagine.”
Pretti showed compassion when the end came, Randolph recalled, walking his family through the process when they turned off the oxygen.
In a video Randolph posted Saturday to Facebook, Pretti could be seen reading Terry Randolph’s final salute after his death at the VA facility in December 2024.
“Today we have to remember that freedom is not free,” Pretti said. “We have to work at it, nurture it, protect it and even sacrifice for it. May we never forget and always remember our brothers and sisters who have served so that we may enjoy the gift of freedom.”
Matt Lavietes reported from Minneapolis, Pilar Melendez from New York City and Dennis Romero from San Diego.
