Minnesotans mourn Alex Pretti, man killed by Border Patrol agents

More than 1,000 people gathered for a vigil and rally Saturday night at Whittier Park in Minneapolis to mourn Alex Pretti, the man who was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent. After the vigil, demonstrators marched in subzero temperatures to the site where Pretti was killed on Nicollet Avenue, south of 26th Street.

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The site of the shooting has been turned into a makeshift memorial of candles and flowers, less than 2 miles away from the memorial in the Powderhorn neighborhood made for Renee Good on January 7, the day she was shot and killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross.

Since Pretti’s killing, which drew hundreds of protestors in the immediate aftermath, people have built barricades out of dumpsters, trash cans and picnic tables to block off traffic from the surrounding streets. Before a swell of demonstrators arrived from the Whittier Park vigil, the area was mostly quiet, with hundreds huddled around his memorial.

Isabelle Atem, a nurse who drove in from Woodbury, cried as she said: “I thought it was just a dream, but I’m here now. It feels real. It really happened. You know, in a movie, when you shoot people, I know it’s fake. I never knew it (could be) real.”

Atem said she felt bad when she found out Pretti was also a nurse. In a statement to multiple news outlets, Pretti’s parents said he was an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital.

“Nurses are out there to help people. Why are they killing? Why are they shooting?” Atem said.

Atem, an immigrant from Cameroon, said that despite being a U.S. citizen, she has been afraid to go outside amid the surge of over 3,000 federal immigration agents to Minnesota, who have detained residents regardless of their citizenship status.

People were handing out warm drinks and food — fried rice, hummus — from local restaurants at tables at Pretti’s memorial. Glam Doll Donuts, across the street from where the Border Patrol agent shot Pretti, was open after hours and filled with people looking to stay warm.

As demonstrators from the nearby vigil filtered onto Nicollet, chanting, Jake Anderson handed out the last of the three gallons of chicken wild rice soup he had made that day.

Anderson, who lives in the Whittier neighborhood where Pretti was killed, said that he came to support everyone marching “a brutal takeover of our city by totalitarian ICE members and people who don’t actually care about safety in our community.”

“I think there’s a lot of outrage and rage clearly, but there’s also just a sense of community,” he said, as a man complimented his soup.

Some demonstrators banged on dumpsters with hammers and their hands as people chanted: “No Justice, No Peace” and “F*ck ICE.”

The parents of Alex Pretti, Michael and Susan Pretti, released a statement Saturday, castigating the Trump administration for slandering their son with “sickening lies” that they called “reprehensible and disgusting.”

They defended their son’s conduct, saying he was protecting a woman who had been pushed down by federal agents. “Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.”

Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com.