(AFP) – The US citizen shot dead by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis on Saturday was an intensive care nurse at a local veterans’ hospital who “wanted to make a difference in this world,” family members said. Alex Pretti, 37, was shot and killed while scuffling with immigration officials on an icy roadway in the Midwestern city, less than three weeks after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and killed Renee Good, also 37, in her car.
The latest killing sparked fresh protests and rebukes from local officials, who disputed the Trump administration’s quick claims that Pretti intended to harm federal agents as he participated in demonstrations against a sweeping immigration crackdown. Pretti was “a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends” and those he cared for at a Minneapolis Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital, his parents said in a statement on Saturday. “Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact,” his parents said.
Dimitri Drekonja, chief of the Infectious Diseases Section at the Minneapolis VA hospital and a colleague of Pretti’s, called him “a good kind person who lived to help.” “He had such a great attitude. We’d chat between patients about trying to get in a mountain bike ride together. Will never happen now,” Drekonja wrote on the social media platform Bluesky. He said Pretti was a nurse working “to support critically ill Veterans.” Pretti graduated from high school in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 2006, according to local media reports. He went to nursing school before joining the VA.
Trump administration officials have sought to brand Pretti as a violent aggressor, but their accounts are contradicted by video, which AFP has not verified, aired widely by US media. Pretti’s parents said their son had stepped in front of a federal agent who shoved a woman protester shortly before his death. They denounced what they called “sickening lies” from the Trump administration and said the gun found on Pretti, which local officials said he was licensed to carry, was not in his hand when he was shot.
“Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs,” his parents said in the statement. “He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed.” The family asked the public to “get the truth out about our son. He was a good man.” “We are heartbroken but also very angry,” they said.
© 2024 AFP
