The neighborhood where federal agents killed Alex Pretti is slowly healing
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Friday marks six months since federal agents shot and killed Minnesotan and U.S. citizen Alex Pretti. Pretti was killed on Nicollet Avenue, also known as Eat Street in south Minneapolis, located in the Whittier neighborhood.
Anna Schmitz is the executive director of the Whittier Alliance, and she said she worked with teachers in her neighborhood who had students with parents that had been deported and neighbors who had been detained.
“We did things as a neighborhood association that I definitely was not anticipating when I took this job,” she said. “It's shown me what is possible.”
Schmitz said her team helped distribute $6 million in rent support. There are also community groups that are creating free food pantries that stocked up on ice water and Gatorade during the recent heatwave.
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But now that the need for immediate attention is waning, the alliance’s next steps are starting to look toward the long-term support. Not only in memory of Pretti, but also for the community.
Schmitz said the neighborhood has finally been able to take a breath.
“There are folks in the neighborhood who witnessed Alex's murder. and I think people are now able slowly to kind of come together and think about how we move forward as a neighborhood,” she said.
Listen to the full conversation by clicking the player above.
