![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IDU6HRQNIU42IQLFZ46ODH2S4U.jpg\")
People visit a makeshift memorial for 37-year-old Alex Pretti, who was fatally shot by a Border Patrol officer over the weekend, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026, in Minneapolis. Adam Gray\/Associated Press<\/p>\nPretti, 37, worked at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital. His killing on Saturday morning by federal homeland security agents has shaken the entire city, still reeling from the death of Renee Good after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot her in her car less than three weeks ago. But it is hitting health care workers here especially hard. Many in the crowd were fellow nurses or former colleagues of Pretti.<\/p>\n
People visit a makeshift memorial for 37-year-old Alex Pretti, who was fatally shot by a Border Patrol officer over the weekend, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026, in Minneapolis. Adam Gray\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
Brian Johnston, an epidemiologist who worked as an infectious disease researcher at the Minneapolis VA hospital for more than two decades, met Pretti about 10 years ago when he was a junior scientist down the hall in a neighboring lab. \u201cAnyone who knew him for 10 seconds would know he\u2019s a stand-up guy,\u201d Johnston told STAT during the vigil. \u201cHe didn\u2019t have to think about doing the right thing, it was just in his blood.\u201d<\/p>\n
They weren\u2019t close friends, but they connected over a shared love of mountain biking, and would often eat lunch together at the VA. Johnston watched him make the move from a research assistant to taking nursing classes and becoming certified to work in the ICU. \u201cHe just needed to be closer to the frontlines of helping people,\u201d said Johnston, whose father is a veteran and mother is a nurse. \u201cIf you\u2019d ever want someone to take care of your loved ones, it\u2019d be Alex.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnston left the VA a few years ago. He was on his way home from his son\u2019s soccer game on Saturday when he learned that the man who\u2019d been shot by federal immigration agents that morning was his former colleague. He came to the vigil Sunday to lay flowers and honor the Pretti that he knew. \u201cIt\u2019s really tough to lose a guy like that, to have him taken away so violently,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a huge loss for Minneapolis.\u201d<\/p>\n
For weeks, as thousands of masked, badge-less federal agents have moved through the city and state in unmarked vehicles as part of Operation Metro Surge, health care workers have been sounding the alarm on the public health crisis it is creating. At\u00a0a press conference\u00a0last week, pediatricians, emergency room doctors, and other physicians expressed concerns that ICE\u2019s presence in area hospitals is not only violating their patients\u2019 privacy and potentially endangering them, but also deterring immigrants and other vulnerable members of the community from seeking care.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/6K74XAW22TLNTSNGJLAFLR3ZZA.jpg\")
Alex J. Pretti was shot and killed by a federal officer in Minneapolis on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. Uncredited\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been a practicing physician for 19 years here in Minnesota and I have never seen this amount of chaos and fear,\u201d said Roli Dwivedi, a family physician and chief clinical officer at the University of Minnesota\u2019s community health care center. She shared stories of a patient missing routine wound care follow-ups only to show up in the ICU days later with a life-threatening infection and a mother separated from her child by immigration agents while trying to fill a prescription for the child\u2019s seizure condition. Several clinics have reported no-shows and cancellation rates as high as 60%, Dwivedi said. \u201cFear is claiming lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout the weekend, physicians and nurses who work in ICUs across the metro have been sending flowers, cards, and donations for meals to Pretti\u2019s colleagues in the VA hospital\u2019s ICU. A spokesperson for the VA hospital told STAT that there were no immediate plans for a public memorial there. On Sunday night, Doug Collins, the U.S. secretary of Veterans Affairssent condolences to the Pretti family on X<\/a>, before blaming his death on \u201cstate and local officials\u2019 refusal to cooperate with the federal government to enforce the law and deport dangerous illegal criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n Within hours of the shooting, federal officials with the Department of Homeland Security justified it as an act of self-defense amid an armed struggle, and asserted, with no evidence, that Pretti had committed an act of \u201cdomestic terrorism.\u201d A New York Times analysis<\/a> of several videos taken by bystanders show that Pretti \u2014 who was a lawful gun owner with a concealed carry permit and no criminal record, according to local law enforcement officials \u2014 was holding a phone, not a gun, and recording federal officers moments before he was wrestled to the ground, disarmed, and then shot multiple times.<\/p>\n Pretti\u2019s family denounced the Trump administration\u2019s response to the shooting as \u201csickening lies.\u201d In a statement\u00a0reported by the Associated Press\u00a0<\/a>Saturday night, Pretti\u2019s parents, Susan and Michael, described Alex as a \u201ckindhearted soul\u201d who wanted to make a difference in this world. \u201cPlease get the truth out about our son,\u201d they said. \u201cHe was a good man.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Mourners](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/YWA2FKAPQ7SJ3V4UZYXVJNJXXY.jpg\")
Mourners gather at a vigil for Alex Pretti, who was shot and killed by federal immigration agents, in Minneapolis.JAMIE KELTER DAVIS\/NYT<\/p>\n