Minneapolis shooting: Alex Pretti’s friends and family denounce ‘sickening lies’ about his life
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Mr Alex Pretti’s friends and family said he was calm and generous with others.
PHOTO: VICTOR BLUE/NYTIMES
Talya Minsberg, Corina Knoll and Julie Bosman
MINNEAPOLIS – He was a calm presence amid hospital chaos. A mentor who taught kindness and patience to younger friends and colleagues. A singer with a knack for dancing. A bicyclist who treasured the beauty of Minnesota.
This weekend, the family, co-workers and friends of Mr Alex Pretti, who was killed by immigration agents in a confrontation
They shared photos of the Alex they knew: a smiling, bearded Mr Pretti in the powder-blue scrubs he wore at his job as an intensive care nurse at the Veterans Affairs hospital, an outdoors lover posing with his mountain bike on a wooded trail and a student wearing a green cap and gown as he sang a solo at his high school graduation in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
And they denounced what they saw as smear campaigns
Within hours of the killing by federal agents on a Minneapolis street, Trump administration officials labelled Mr Pretti a “would-be assassin” and asserted, with no evidence, that he committed an act of “domestic terrorism”.
Through their own shock and grief, people who knew him struggled to rise above the lies and insults, they said, to describe who he was.
Mr Rory Shefchek, a friend from high school who now lives in Madison, Wisconsin, said he hoped that Mr Pretti would be remembered as the person he knew.
“He was a helpful, kind guy,” Mr Shefchek said. “He was a confident, diligent and respectful person throughout his life. I hope that Alex’s story can catalyse change, as someone who believed in doing the right thing.”
Of the cellphone footage of Mr Pretti’s death that has circulated widely in the news and on social media, Mr Shefchek said: “We have all seen the video, and our eyes don’t lie.”
Dr Dimitri Drekonja, a colleague of Mr Pretti’s at the VA hospital, was shaken when he heard that an immigration agent had killed a civilian in Minneapolis. It was awful, he said, even before he learnt that the civilian was his friend.
“He was a happy guy,” Dr Drekonja said. “When you asked him to do something, it would be done, and it would be done right.”
Mr Pretti, who was 37, was on the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic, and was always eager to help whoever needed an extra hand. He was the kind of nurse patients remembered, colleagues said, and he was a beloved mentor to nurses stepping into the intimidating environment of the intensive care unit.
As an ICU nurse, he was accustomed to people in crisis, said Ms Elissa Todd, a colleague and friend. He was also trained in de-escalation, she noted.
Ms Todd said it was painful to see his last moments, knowing personally how calmly Mr Pretti was able to manage the chaos and stress that came with his job.
“Whatever conversation was being had, I cannot imagine he’s someone who would have made it worse,” she said, referring to his interaction with immigration agents in the minutes before he died. “He would have been someone who was being reasonable and thinking clearly.”
She paused before saying: “I can’t imagine what their last dialogue was, but I will say that he’s uniquely qualified to handle it with integrity and grace.”
Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota said on Jan 25 that he spoke with Mr Pretti’s parents, who live in Colorado. Mr Walz said he was trying to channel their desire to tell the world who Mr Pretti really was, a person who lived “a life of generosity”, according to his family.
“Someone who went to work to care for veterans, someone who was a valued co-worker, someone who relished and lived in this state in a big way, whether it was outdoor activities or being down there on the street as a First Amendment witness to what ICE is doing to this state,” Mr Walz said, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“If we cannot all agree that (this is) the smearing of an American citizen and besmirching everything they stood for and asking us not to believe what we saw,” he added, “I don’t know what else to tell you.”
Mr Pretti’s family said in a statement on Jan 24 that they were heartbroken, but also “very angry”.
Mr Pretti’s parents, Mrs Susan Pretti and Mr Michael Pretti, in a statement reported by The Associated Press and CNN, called their son “a kind-hearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends, and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital”.
“Alex wanted to make a difference in this world,” the statement said. “Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact.”
The family denounced the Trump administration’s response to the shooting
Federal officials have noted that Mr Pretti had a gun with him during the confrontation, though he was licensed to carry the firearm and had not drawn the weapon. Videos show that Mr Pretti was holding a phone, rather than his gun. An agent had disarmed Mr Pretti just before he was shot.
Colleagues knew he was a gun owner, although he did not speak of it often, except in occasional conversations about gun reform.
“The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting,” the Pretti family statement said. “Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man.”
At Mr Pretti’s apartment building late on Jan 24, neighbours on his block came together for a small gathering, lighting candles in the brutally cold Minnesota air.
As word of Mr Pretti’s death spread among friends in Wisconsin, where he grew up, they swopped memories from decades ago – of Mr Pretti dancing in the show choir in a tuxedo and performing in a production of Guys And Dolls.
Mr J.D. Atkins, 36, remembered when he got his first big role in a play and Mr Pretti calmed his nerves and offered to run lines together.
It was not uncommon for younger students to see Mr Pretti as a role model, he said, and Mr Atkins credited him for influencing his career as a high school theatre director and playwright near Milwaukee.
“We just really wanted to be like him, because he was cool without trying,” Mr Atkins said. “And as an adult, I realise it’s because he was kind to everybody.”
Another classmate, Mr Kevin McGillivray, recalled that Mr Pretti seemed to exude a sense of justice even when it came to petty school interactions.
Upperclassmen tended to pick on younger students, but Mr Pretti never joined his peers. Mr McGillivray said he and others looked up to Mr Pretti as an older brother figure.
“He would step up and say something to them and encourage them to reconsider what they’re doing,” Mr McGillivray, 35, said. “The feeling that I have when I remember him is just a deep sense of safety and confidence.”
When Ms Heather Zielinski saw the video of a federal agent shooting a man on Jan 24, she knew she recognised the person. It took her a minute to realise it was her friend of more than 10 years, Mr Pretti.
“I saw him get wrestled down to the ground, and I saw his feet just go limp, and my heart sank into my stomach,” she said
Ms Zielinski does not think he would want to be known as a martyr. She thinks he would like to be remembered as a guy who enjoyed riding his bike, as someone who loved his family and as a person who cared about healthcare, science and research.
She described him as straitlaced, someone who got good grades in school and cared deeply about his job. He loved being outdoors, she said, and took a mountain biking trip to Utah and Colorado over the summer before competing in a cycling relay race in Milwaukee.
“He was a really good friend, and a really good man,” she said. NYTIMES
