New details emerging from those closest to Alex Pretti suggest that, in the days before his fatal shooting, he was already grappling with the possibility that something might go terribly wrong.
According to his sister, speaking to the Star Tribune, Pretti wrote a brief but devastating note after an earlier encounter with federal agents allegedly left him with a broken rib just a week before his death. The note, which he placed on the family’s dining table, read simply: “If anything happens to me, take care of Mom and Dad.”
Family members say the message stunned them. Pretti, an ICU nurse known for his composure under pressure, was not someone who spoke lightly about fear or mortality. Yet after the injury, his sister recalls a noticeable shift — quieter moments, heavier conversations, and an unspoken sense that he felt exposed, vulnerable, and aware that the situation surrounding him was escalating beyond his control.
Those close to Pretti describe the note as less a goodbye than a precaution — the kind of message written by someone who felt the ground beneath him had already begun to shift. He did not frame it as a farewell, they say, nor did he explain it in detail. Instead, he left it behind as a responsibility passed gently, almost matter-of-factly, to the people he trusted most.
In the aftermath of his death, the note has taken on a haunting significance. To his family, it suggests that Pretti believed the danger was not abstract or distant, but immediate — a fear rooted in a real encounter that had already caused him physical harm. To supporters and advocates now scrutinizing the case, it raises troubling questions about what he experienced in the days leading up to the fatal incident, and whether warning signs were already present.
As legal battles unfold and competing narratives continue to collide, this small piece of paper — written quietly, without witnesses — has become one of the most unsettling details yet. Not because it explains what happened, but because it hints that Alex Pretti may have sensed the ending before anyone else did.
