{"id":116893,"date":"2026-01-30T00:43:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T00:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/116893\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T00:43:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T00:43:28","slug":"vigil-for-alex-pretti-ice-shooting-victim-draws-huge-crowd-at-manhattans-va-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/116893\/","title":{"rendered":"Vigil for Alex Pretti, ICE shooting victim, draws huge crowd at Manhattan\u2019s VA Hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thousands of New Yorkers, including a large contingent of nurses, gathered outside the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Manhattan for a vigil for Alex Pretti, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/2026\/01\/28\/alex-pretti-ice-agents-administrative-leave\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">second person to be gunned down by federal agents<\/a> amid the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n<p>The massive crowd \u2014 estimated at up to 2,000 people \u2014 gathered outside the VA NY Harbor Healthcare System on E. 23rd St. near First Ave. in Kips Bay around 5 p.m.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"People attend a vigil and memorial for Alex Pretti outside the Manhattan VA Hospital on Thursday, January 29, 2026, in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)\" width=\"5000\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/TNY-Candle-Williams-6839.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"8686834\" \/>People attend a vigil and memorial for Alex Pretti outside the Manhattan VA Hospital on Thursday, January 29, 2026, in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n<p>Members of the crowd lit candles and carried signs that read, \u201cJustice for Alex Pretti,\u201d \u201cLove melts ICE\u201d and \u201cAbolish ICE.\u201d A statement by Pretti\u2019s parents was read aloud.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"People attend a vigil and memorial for Alex Pretti outside the Manhattan VA Hospital on Thursday, January 29, 2026, in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)\" width=\"5000\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/TNY-Candle-Williams-1195.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"8686819\" \/>People attend a vigil and memorial for Alex Pretti outside the Manhattan VA Hospital on Thursday, January 29, 2026, in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n<p>Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, was gunned down by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis on Jan. 24.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"People attend a vigil and memorial for Alex Pretti outside the Manhattan VA Hospital on Thursday, January 29, 2026, in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)\" width=\"5000\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/TNY-Candle-Williams-6987.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"8686837\" \/>People attend a vigil and memorial for Alex Pretti outside the Manhattan VA Hospital on Thursday, January 29, 2026, in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/minnesota\/live-updates\/dhs-secretary-kristi-noem-under-scrutiny-bovino-exits-minnesota-after-alex-pretti-killing\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Video from the scene<\/a> showed Pretti trying to assist a woman after an ICE agent shoved her to the ground, then being pepper-sprayed and wrestled to the pavement by several agents, one of them <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/01\/24\/us\/invs-videos-show-federal-officer-recovered-gun\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">removing a gun from Pretti\u2019s waistband<\/a>, before two agents opened fire on him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of New Yorkers, including a large contingent of nurses, gathered outside the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Manhattan&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[262,263,266,85,267,75,84,83,9,24,264,12,63,261,265],"class_list":["post-116893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-crime","tag-sub-county-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}