Border Patrol kills Minneapolis ICU nurse amid immigration crackdown

A U.S. Border Patrol officer shot and killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, in Minneapolis on Saturday during the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement crackdown. Pretti was an intensive-care nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital and a U.S. citizen born in Illinois. He had participated in protests following the January 7 killing of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in the same city.

The shooting marks the second federal law-enforcement death in Minneapolis in recent weeks and raises questions about the procedures federal officers follow when using lethal force during immigration enforcement operations.

The Shooting and Disputed Account

The Department of Homeland Security said Pretti approached Border Patrol officers with a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun. The agency did not specify whether Pretti brandished the weapon.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti approached officers with a handgun. Bystander videos of the shooting showed Pretti with a phone in his hand, but none of the footage appeared to show him with a visible weapon.

Pretti’s family said he owned a handgun and had a permit to carry a concealed firearm in Minnesota, but they said they had never known him to carry it. After viewing videos of the shooting, the family issued a written statement saying Pretti was not holding a gun when federal agents tackled him. Instead, they said, he was holding his phone with one hand and using the other to shield a woman who was being pepper-sprayed.

“The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting,” the family said.

A Nurse and Devoted Community Member

Pretti grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he played football, baseball and ran track in high school. He was a Boy Scout and sang in the Green Bay Boy Choir.

After graduating from high school, he attended the University of Minnesota, graduating in 2011 with a degree in biology, society and the environment. He later trained as a registered nurse.

Court records showed Pretti had no criminal history and no prior interactions with law enforcement beyond a handful of traffic tickets.

Neighbors in the Minneapolis condominium building where Pretti lived described him as quiet and warmhearted. “He has a great heart,” said Sue Gitar, who lived in the same four-unit building. Pretti worked long hours as a nurse but was not a loner, neighbors said, and would sometimes have friends over.

Pretti was a competitive bicycle racer who cared deeply about the outdoors. His parents said that shortly before his death, when he hired a Latino worker to repair his garage door, Pretti gave the man a $100 tip in response to the immigration enforcement occurring in Minneapolis. His mother, Susan Pretti, said her son was troubled by the Trump administration’s rollback of environmental regulations.

“He loved this country, but he hated what people were doing to it,” she said.

Years of Activism

Pretti had participated in the wave of street protests following the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. His ex-wife, who spoke to the Associated Press but requested anonymity, said she was not surprised that Pretti would have been involved in protesting the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement. She described him as someone who might shout at law enforcement officers at a protest but had never been physically confrontational.

Pretti’s parents said they had discussed the risks of protesting with their son about two weeks before his death. “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,” his father, Michael Pretti, said. “And he said he knows that. He knew that.”

Family’s Struggle for Answers

The family said they first learned of the shooting when called by an Associated Press reporter. They watched the video and said the man killed appeared to be their son. They then attempted to reach out to officials in Minnesota but said they received no information from law enforcement.

“I can’t get any information from anybody,” Michael Pretti said. “The police, they said call Border Patrol, Border Patrol’s closed, the hospitals won’t answer any questions.”

Eventually, the parents called the Hennepin County Medical Examiner, who confirmed the death matched their son’s description.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, said in a social media post that he had been in contact with the White House after the shooting. The killing comes roughly two weeks after the January 7 death of Renee Good, a Minneapolis woman killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer during an immigration enforcement operation in the same city. That shooting also sparked protests and raised questions about federal use of force during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

As of Saturday evening, the family said they had still not heard from any federal law enforcement agency about their son’s death.