The photo shows a bearded man wearing glasses. He’s smiling and dressed in light blue nurse’s scrubs. A slice of American flag appears behind him.
This ordinary headshot of Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old intensive-care nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affair Hospital who was shot and killed by federal immigration agents on Saturday, shows a side of him that resonated deeply with other first responders as the state – and nation – reeled from yet another slaying of a civilian by ICE.
“We’re at the site where one of our own nurses was murdered,” Mary Turner, an ICU nurse and president of National Nurses United in Minneapolis, said in an emotional video posted to Instagram. Pretti was “a VA nurse and an ICU nurse that cared for our most venerated patients – our veterans.”
Pretti was reportedly trying to help a woman who was on the ground right before he was killed. His death follows that of Renee Good, a poet and mother of three who was also 37, earlier this month.
Dr. Aasma Shaukat, a professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, hired Pretti about a decade ago as a research assistant at the Minneapolis VA Hospital and recalled him as an empathetic, hard-working medical professional.
“He was passionate about taking care of patients and being involved in healthcare and in his community,” Shaukat said on Democracy Now! “He was a joy to work with. He went above and beyond to help everybody and really had a good rapport with all the patients. I think patients connected with him based on his deep empathy for them.”
She added that she and her colleagues were in shock when they learned the news.
“He was the kind of helpful person who’d open doors for you,” Shaukat said. “If someone was trying to get on the elevator, he’d hold it for you.”
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Several nurses’ associations demanded a thorough investigation of what happened. President Donald Trump and other federal officials have insisted that Pretti was violent and impeding law enforcement when he was killed.
“Nurses across this country, we need to stand up and say enough is enough,” Turner said in her video. “We have to do everything in our power to fight ICE and get them out of our communities. We need to make our patients and our people safe again.”
On Monday, the American Nurses Association urged its members to write to Congress demanding an investigation.
“In his final moments, it appeared Alex was providing compassionate care to an individual from the community who was on the ground. Subsequently, he was killed,” the group said. “ANA refuses to normalize violence and fear, regardless of who perpetuates it, both in professional care settings and within our communities.”
The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses released a statement recognizing that Pretti’s death “is especially distressing among the nursing community.”
“We also pause to reinforce that nurses’ advocacy extends beyond patients and patients’ families to work toward a society in which in which safety and well-being are the norm,” the group said. “Our well-being is paramount to our ability to provide excellent care to patients and their families.”