In brief
Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, an intensive care nurse at the Veterans Administration, was shot and killed by federal officers in Minneapolis. His family describes him as someone who cared deeply for others and participated in protests against recent immigration policies. Pretti had a permit to carry a concealed weapon but was not known to carry it regularly. The incident remains under investigation, and family members express frustration over the lack of information regarding the shooting.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Family members say the man killed by a federal officer in Minneapolis on Saturday was an intensive care nurse at the Veterans Administration who cared deeply about people and was upset by President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in his city.Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, was an avid outdoorsman who loved getting into adventures with Joule, his beloved Catahoula Leopard dog, who also recently died. He had participated in protests following the killing of Renee Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Law Enforcement officer earlier this month.“He cared 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,” said Michael Pretti, Alex’s father. “He felt that doing the protesting was a way to express that, you know, his care for others.”Pretti was a U.S. citizen, born in Illinois. Like Good, court records showed he had no criminal record, and his family said he had never had any interactions with law enforcement beyond a couple of traffic tickets.In a recent conversation with their son, his parents, who live in Wisconsin, told him to be careful when protesting. “We 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,” Michael Pretti said. “And he said he knows that. He knew that.”The Department of Homeland Security reported that the man was shot after he “approached” U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun. Officials did not specify if Pretti brandished the gun, which is not visible in bystander video of the shooting obtained by The Associated Press. Family members said Pretti owned a handgun and had a permit to carry a concealed handgun in Minnesota but were unaware of him carrying it regularly. The family first learned about the shooting when they were contacted by an Associated Press reporter. They watched the video and suspected it was their son who was killed. They then attempted to reach out to officials in Minnesota but faced significant obstacles.“I can’t get any information from anybody,” Michael Pretti expressed. “The police, they said call Border Patrol, Border Patrol’s closed, the hospitals won’t answer any questions?”Eventually, the family did get confirmation from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner of a body matching the name and description of their son.
