Minneapolis Nurse Fatally Shot by ICE Agents While Documenting Federal Operations
The chilling death of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital, has sent shockwaves through Minneapolis and beyond. Pretti was fatally shot by masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in broad daylight while using his mobile phone to record their activities in the city. This incident marks the second such killing this month, following the death of fellow Minneapolis resident Renee Good, also aged 37, under similar circumstances.
Final Moments of a Caregiver Turned Witness
Bystander videos circulating online depict Pretti's last moments with disturbing clarity. The nurse can be seen holding up his phone to document ICE agents operating in Minneapolis, simultaneously waving cars around the scene to protect other civilians from the escalating confrontation. His final act was one characteristic of his profession – asking "Are you OK?" to a woman who had been tackled and pepper-sprayed by nearby agents.
After being dragged away from the woman he attempted to assist, Pretti found himself surrounded by approximately ten ICE officers who forced him to the ground. As he struggled to free himself from their restraint, at least ten shots rang out within a mere five-second span. The videos show Pretti lying motionless on the asphalt while horrified bystanders can be heard screaming, "What the fuck, they killed him" and "Did they fucking kill that guy?"
Administration's Controversial Response and Unsubstantiated Claims
The Trump administration and border patrol officials swiftly moved to characterise Pretti as a villain following the shooting. Senior White House official Stephen Miller responded to Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar's condemnation of the killing by labelling Pretti a "domestic terrorist" who had attempted to assassinate federal law enforcement – claims for which he provided absolutely no evidence.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem similarly described the nurse as a "domestic terrorist" without substantiation, while border patrol commander Gregory Bovino – whose olive-green greatcoat has drawn comparisons to Nazi uniforms in German media – claimed it "looks like" Pretti "wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement." Again, no evidence supported these serious allegations.
Administration claims that Pretti, who was licensed to carry a legal firearm, was attacking ICE officers directly contradict video evidence showing him engaged in constitutionally protected observation with one hand holding his phone and the other shielding his face from pepper spray.
A City Under Occupation and Citizens Under Threat
Pretti's death occurs against the backdrop of what many Minneapolis residents describe as a military occupation of their city by ICE. Daily life has transformed for citizens who now undertake extraordinary measures to protect vulnerable immigrant communities. Local parents supervise school drop-offs to prevent children being snatched by agents, volunteers follow ICE vehicles to document arrests, and ordinary citizens wear whistles around their necks to alert neighbours when agents appear.
"They're here! Stay inside!" has become a common warning cry captured in the numerous videos emerging daily from a city that increasingly resembles a community under siege. These protective gestures – bringing groceries and medicine to immigrant families hiding in their homes, documenting arrests to help locate the disappeared – have become dangerously risky undertakings following the killings of Good and Pretti.
The Elimination of Witnesses and the Refusal to Be Seen
ICE agents' apparent targeting of observers like Pretti and Good suggests a deliberate strategy to eliminate witnesses to their operations. The agents' methods – covering their faces, driving unmarked vehicles, and removing insignia when off-duty – echo historical instances of racial terror in America, drawing uncomfortable parallels with the masked men of the Ku Klux Klan who similarly sought to eradicate "undesirables" from communities.
Former Boston police commander and criminology professor Tom Nolan, who once advised the Department of Homeland Security on civil rights issues, has described Pretti's death as "stone cold murder." Others view it as the systematic elimination of witnesses to federal overreach.
Demands for Accountability and Historical Reckoning
As more Americans recognise that there can be no quiet moving on from the Trump era, demands grow for a comprehensive reckoning with ICE's actions. Any restoration of democratic norms in the United States will require thorough investigations, prosecutions, and tribunals to assess and punish those responsible for these fatal shootings and the broader occupation of American cities.
The ICE agents who shot Good and Pretti operate with the knowledge that their actions are being witnessed globally. Their apparent attempts to eliminate witnesses cannot succeed against the growing numbers of citizens called to heroism and documentation. As one commentator noted, "If they're trying to eliminate witnesses, they cannot eliminate us all."
Pretti's Legacy and the Cost of Freedom
In a poignant posthumous tribute, friends released a video showing Pretti at work in the VA hospital, reading a customary final salute to an elderly veteran who died in his care. "Today, we remember that freedom is not free," Pretti reads in the recording. "We have to work at it, nurture it, protect it and even sacrifice for it."
Alex Pretti – remembered by friends for his devotion to his elderly dog Joule who died about a year ago, and by colleagues as a dedicated caregiver – has now sacrificed his own life in the act of witnessing. His death has called thousands more to witness the horrors of their time, regardless of the consequences such reckoning may bring. As the community mourns, his final question – "Are you OK?" – echoes as a challenge to all citizens to be at least as brave as he was in protecting fundamental freedoms.
