Health care community mourns Alex Pretti, the VA nurse killed Saturday by federal agent
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As Minnesota grapples with its second fatal shooting by federal agents this month, the health care community grieves the loss of one of their own.
Alex Pretti, 37, who was an intensive care unit nurse at the Minneapolis VA Hospital, was killed by a federal border patrol agent Saturday near his home in Minneapolis.
Later that day, crowds formed at the site where Pretti was shot in the Whittier neighborhood to pay their respects. And the vigil continued through the weekend and Monday. Despite the frigid temperatures, hundreds of people stopped by, some with cards, candles, flowers and other mementos to place at the impromptu memorial site.
Many who turned up to celebrate Pretti’s life were health care workers. Kelley Anaas is an ICU nurse like Pretti was and she said his death hit close to home.
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“It’s so hard to be identifying so closely with these people who are just out here trying to take care of their community,” Anaas said. “I think it’s hitting people that if a man, who spent his life passionately taking care of our most vulnerable members of society, can be executed on camera in broad daylight, it can be any of us.”
She and fellow nurse Erin Williamson said ICE has been impacting their work at the hospitals they work at for weeks.
“People are so scared,” said Williamson, who says she’s seen ICE camped outside Twin Cities hospitals. “People feel scared about going to hospitals and taking their children.”
“It’s not who we should be as a nation,” Anaas added. “It's not who we are as Minnesotans. People should be able to come and get care and feel safe getting that care, no matter who they are, where they’re from, how they came to be in Minnesota.”
Anaas is holding a sign. It says, ”Nurses: America’s most trusted profession and pissed.” She said as a collective, people in her industry are furious.
“Nurses — as individuals, we might not always get along — but you mess with one of us, you've messed with all of us, and that’s ICE’s mistake,” Anaas said.
Since hearing the news of Pretti’s death, friends, loved ones and colleagues have been sharing their memories of Pretti’s service to the nursing community and to his patients.
Jessica Hauser posted on social media this week, describing Pretti as a friend and nursing mentor who helped train her to care for “sickest of the sick” and how to use “techniques intended to heal.” She said she recognized his patience, compassion, and calm even in his final moments.
“Caring for people was at the core of who he was,” Hauser wrote in her post. “He was incapable of causing harm. He lived a life of healing, and he lived it well. I want his family to know his legacy lives on. I am a better nurse because of the wisdom and skills he instilled in me. I carry his light with me into every room, letting it guide and steady my hands as I heal and care for those in need.”
The American Federation of Government Employees — the union that represents Pretti and his fellow nurses at the VA — called Sunday for a full and transparent investigation into his killing. The AFGE says it is mourning Pretti’s death and that “no after-the-fact explanation can erase the reality that this administration’s choices have created the conditions that made this tragedy possible.”
Anne Bateman, a member of the same union, is a retired nurse, who also worked at the VA, like Pretti. She and her husband traveled 40 minutes from Delano to Minneapolis Sunday to attend a gathering of union members and other concerned citizens to discuss ways to move forward after Pretti’s death.
“It’s so emotional that it’s hard to talk without crying...I’m like empty for words,” Bateman said, tearing up.
The 74-year-old took care of veterans with spinal cord injuries at the VA for years — many of whom were injured during the Vietnam and Iraq wars. Even though she never met Pretti, she feels like she understands him — and how he was feeling right before he was shot.
“He’s trying to help someone who has been shoved to the ground,” said Batemen describing the videos that show Pretti trying to help a woman that has been pushed to the ground by federal agents, shortly before he was pepper sprayed and shot.
“I know the heart of health care workers and nurses — it’s their whole thrust, their whole reason for being is caring,” Bateman said. “And you see on the video for Alex — it’s like you can almost hear what he’s thinking: ‘Help. Take care of this person.’ And that’s what nursing is.”
Bateman noted that Pretti’s killing is another wallop to the health care industry and a federal agency that has been taking hit after hit in recent years. There was the COVID-19 pandemic, federal budget and job cuts in the VA and other public health programs and agencies, and now this.
“It’s grief upon grief,” Bateman said. “And now with Alex, I think you’re going to see anger, because it’s not right. It’s wrong.”
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