Hundreds gather to honor Alex Pretti at Minneapolis vigil
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A crowd gathered Wednesday night at 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis, near where Alex Pretti, 37, was killed by federal agents last weekend. Several hundred people filled the block, which police closed to traffic. Candles were passed hand to hand, and the street twinkled with candlelight mixing with white Christmas lights strung through the trees.
Many brought flowers and laid them at a memorial that’s grown in the days since Pretti was killed.
Pretti had worked as an intensive care unit nurse at the Minneapolis VA Hospital, and nurses organized the event. The mood drifted between quiet and somber, then lifted when music cut through the cold: Brass Solidarity played, and later a bagpiper. The crowd could be heard chanting “ICE out!” intermittently.
Diane and Tim Boonstra, who work as pharmacists, came to the vigil from St. Paul in support of the nursing community they work closely with. They said they wanted to honor Pretti and Renee Macklin Good — also killed by a federal agent earlier this month.
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“I think Renee and Alex both were kind of the best of who we are,” Diane Boonstra said. “And I’m really proud to see there’s so many thoughtful, wonderful people who just have the moral clarity to keep doing the right thing. I see that all around me, and especially here in this sacred place.”
Regions nurse Nour Tamimi was among the speakers. She led the crowd in taking deep breaths, which were visible in the cold air, together.
“As we’re here today on the ground where Alex took his last breath, take a couple deep breaths together for Alex in his name,” said Tamimi. “So stand wherever you are. We've been all holding into our breath.”
— Alex V. Cipolle, MPR News
(Correction: Jan. 29, 2025): A previous version of this story misstated the group that organized the vigil. The above story has been updated.
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