Slain ICU nurse Alex Pretti attended the protest in Minneapolis where he was killed last week to honor Renee Good, the 37-year-old mother who’d been shot dead two weeks earlier.
Pretti, a 37‑year‑old U.S. citizen and intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, was thrown to the ground and shot multiple times by federal immigration agents Saturday after he tried to help a woman they’d just shoved down.
His killing came as the city was still reeling from the fatal shooting of Good by an ICE agent just a few miles away.
Trump has deployed thousands of federal immigration agents to the city as part of his “worst of the worst” immigration crackdown.
Supporters and acquaintances of Pretti have said he got involved in protests against immigration raids in the city after the earlier killing of Good.
Pretti’s former patient, Navy veteran Marta Crownhart, told CNN that he was compelled to protest Good’s killing because he “wanted to make a difference.”
“He just knew that she was a good person from what he had heard, and that she was killed for no good reason,” she said in an interview with Kaitlan Collins.
“They tried to say that she tried to run them over, which she didn‘t. You can clearly see that in the video. The administration needs to stop making these contradictions,” she said.
When he told her about attending a protest, she said, “I remember telling him to be careful.”
Crownhart went on to say it “hurt worse than anything” to hear Trump officials describe Pretti as a “domestic terrorist” in the wake of his killing. In the cases of both Pretti and Good, federal officials were criticized for rushing to paint the victims as dangerous radicals who posed a threat to law enforcement.
The White House claimed Good tried to “run over” federal agents with her vehicle before she was shot at point-blank range, though footage of the shooting showed her appearing to try and pull away from the agents. Pretti, likewise, was described by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as someone who showed up with a gun to “kill law enforcement,” though footage contradicted this account.
A handgun in Pretti’s possession that he was legally permitted to carry had apparently never even been removed from his waistband until a federal agent removed it before he was shot, and witnesses said Pretti had never reached for it.
Local officials confirmed Pretti was a licensed gun owner with no criminal record. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara has publicly questioned the federal account of the shooting.
Pretti’s family expressed profound anger and frustration at federal officials’ version of events, accusing the administration of spreading falsehoods about his actions in the moments before he was shot. In a statement released after his death, his parents rejected claims that he posed a threat, saying video evidence showed he was unarmed and trying to help someone when agents opened fire.
“The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting,” the family said, insisting that Pretti had his phone in his hand and was attempting to protect a woman when he was attacked.
“Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you,” the statement added.
Michael Pretti, Alex’s father, told the Associated Press his son “cared about people deeply and he was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the U.S. with ICE.”
His sister, Micayla Pretti, echoed that sentiment. “All Alex ever wanted was to help someone—anyone,” she told the Associated Press. “Even in his very last moments on this earth, he was simply trying to do just that.”
She added of her older brother: “He touched more lives than he probably ever realized.”
