Minneapolis<\/a>, Minnesota, in addition to another non-fatal shooting, amid a major crackdown in Minnesota by federal agents.<\/p>\nPretti attended nursing school at the University of Minnesota, where he was also a junior scientist beginning in 2012, according to his LinkedIn profile.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wanted to help people,\u201d said Dimitri Drekonja, chief of infectious diseases at the VA hospital and professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota, who worked with Pretti at the hospital and on a research project. \u201cHe was a super nice, super helpful guy \u2013 looked after his patients. I\u2019m just stunned.\u201d<\/p>\n
He described Pretti as an \u201coutstanding\u201d nurse and a hard worker, quick with a joke and an \u201cinfectious\u201d spirit. \u201cHe was such a good dude,\u201d Drekonja told the Guardian. \u201cI just love working with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Pretti, Alex\u2019s father, echoed Drekonja\u2019s assessment, describing his son to the Associated Press as someone who \u201ccared about people deeply and he was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the United States with ICE, as millions of other people are upset.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe felt that doing the protesting was a way to express that, you know, his care for others,\u201d the elder Pretti said.<\/p>\n
Pretti\u2019s father confirmed to the AP that his son had participated in protests following the killing of Renee Good by a US Immigration and Customs Law Enforcement officer earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Videos circulating online on Saturday show Pretti directing traffic and filming federal agents, his right hand holding up his phone and his left hand empty. Another video shows him being wrestled to the ground by several law enforcement officers before appearing to be shot several times. At least two officers can be seen with their weapons drawn. Other videos show Pretti seemingly coming to the defence of a legal observer who was shoved to the ground by a federal officer. That officer then sprays Pretti with a chemical agent, repeatedly, before tackling him to the street along with other agents.<\/p>\n
As at least five agents surround Pretti on the ground, one appears to fire a shot at him at close range, followed by a volley of more shots, after which his body goes still.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom what I can see, he was trying to help pull someone away, which is just totally in character for him,\u201d Drekonja said.<\/p>\n
Police chief Brian O\u2019Hara later said during a press conference on Saturday that Pretti\u2019s only known previous interaction with law enforcement was for traffic tickets. O\u2019Hara also noted Pretti was \u201ca lawful gun owner with a permit to carry\u201d.<\/p>\n
Pretti\u2019s parents, who live in Wisconsin, told the AP that during a recent conversation with their son, they warned him about being careful during protests.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had this discussion with him two weeks ago or so, you know, that go ahead and protest, but do not engage, do not do anything stupid, basically,\u201d Michael Pretti said. \u201cAnd he said he knows that. He knew that.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Pretti was in nursing school, Drekonja hired him to help support a study on preventing C diff, a bacterial infection. \u201cHe was instrumental in completing our trial,\u201d Drekonja said. \u201cHe was always asking the rest of the team what he could do. He was always trying to do what he could to free up space for others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pretti obtained his nursing license in 2021, and it was active through 2026. He also assisted on research in 2016.<\/p>\n
The Minnesota Organization of Registered Nurses (MNORN) released a statement about Pretti\u2019s death Saturday afternoon: \u201cToday, our nursing community is grieving. We have lost a fellow registered nurse to an act of violence connected to immigration enforcement. Regardless of where each of us stands on the issues surrounding this moment, the loss of a nurse, a caregiver, a colleague, a human being cuts us deeply.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis message is not about politics. It is about mourning a life taken too soon and honoring the calling we all share. As nurses, we understand loss in a way others may not understand. We know how quickly life can change, how fragile safety can feel, and how pain reaches far beyond one individual to families, coworkers, patients, and communities. When one nurse is lost, all of us feel it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pretti loved mountain biking, and he and Drekonja always talked about biking together on the trails they both frequented. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe found humour in life, and that\u2019s what\u2019s just so sad about seeing this,\u201d Drekonja said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a huge tragedy.\u201d – Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Minnesota man who was killed by federal agents on Saturday has been identified as Alex Pretti, 37,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,25758,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-262538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-minneapolis","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}