A Minneapolis man shot by Border Patrol agents has been identified by his parents as 37-year-old Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse at the VA who joined street protests over recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions. His family has shared details about his life, his reasons for protesting, and their objections to official descriptions of the confrontation that ended with his death. The account below focuses on the facts the family has provided, the sequence of events reported by law enforcement, and the public statements that followed. Embedded media from the original coverage appear where they were originally placed.
Pretti’s parents told reporters their son became involved in demonstrations after the January death of Renee Good, and that he felt compelled to act because of what he saw as injustices in immigration enforcement. They described him as someone who cared about people and who wanted to stand up for those he believed were being mistreated. The family says he worked in the intensive care unit at the Minneapolis VA and looked after veterans as part of his daily life.
According to the family, they first learned their son had been shot when contacted by a news reporter, a call that began a painful cascade of details and questions. Pretti’s father, Michael, explained what motivated his son to join the protests and why Alex felt it mattered to show up. Michael framed Alex’s actions as driven by compassion and outrage at practices he believed were wrong, not as an intent to provoke violence.
“He cared about people deeply and he was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the United States with ICE, as millions of other people are upset,” said Michael Pretti, Alex’s father. “He thought it was terrible, you know, kidnapping children, just grabbing people off the street. He cared about those people, and he knew it was wrong, so he did participate in protests.”
The family told reporters that two weeks before the fatal incident they advised Alex to protest but to avoid engaging physically or escalating confrontations. Michael recalled telling his son to stay peaceful and not do anything “stupid,” and he said Alex acknowledged that guidance and understood it. Family members also revealed that Alex legally owned a handgun, had a concealed-carry permit in Minnesota, and that they had never seen him carry it before.
On the day he was shot, the family says Pretti was openly carrying a 9mm Sig Sauer with two magazines, a detail confirmed in updates from Border Patrol leadership. Law enforcement officials later said Pretti did not have identification on him when agents encountered him. The sequence described by federal sources indicates officers were executing an operation to detain an individual suspected of violent assault when a crowd intervened and a confrontation developed.
Federal statements say officers attempted to disarm the protester and that when those attempts escalated, the officers perceived an imminent threat to their safety. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Greg Bovino described officers being obstructed and then using lethal force after the protester resisted disarmament and reached for a weapon. The family disputes that account and objects to descriptions that paint their son as the aggressor.
Relatives issued a public statement to national outlets, challenging the administration’s portrayal of what happened and insisting the visuals do not support claims that Alex was armed or threatening. In their view, video footage and eyewitness accounts show him holding a phone and raising an empty hand while trying to protect a woman who had been knocked down and pepper-sprayed. The family has asked the public to seek the full truth and has condemned what they call false and dehumanizing characterizations.
Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the hero term lightly. However his last thought and act was to protect a woman.The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed.
Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you”
Local and federal officials continue to outline the law enforcement perspective: agents were carrying out a targeted arrest when they encountered an obstructive crowd, a protester resisted being disarmed, and officers fired to stop an immediate threat. The family maintains that their son did not present the threat claimed and insists on a thorough review of body camera footage and other evidence. Both sides have called attention to different pieces of the same event, leaving the public to parse conflicting accounts.
Investigations by federal and local authorities are ongoing, and eyewitnesses, official statements, and available recordings will be central to determining what happened in those final moments. The family’s plea for truth and the law enforcement narrative about an obstructed operation sit at odds for now, and further releases of evidence will shape how the incident is understood. The community reaction and policy fallout are already prompting heated discussion about protest tactics, crowd control, and how agencies carry out targeted operations in public spaces.
Always my son my son never does anything wrong every family says that about their own kids never their fault in anything they do. What mother or father ever says my child is at fault. Walking around in active protesting conditions with a gun is asking for major trouble you don’t look for trouble carrying a gun common sense tells you that.
If these idiots would stay home and let the agents do their job, up holding the law and get these illegals out of the country, no one would lose their lives. The protesting is a cover up of the billions of dollars wasted in the scandal of the Somali corruption. And the crooked governor, waltz should be under a jail, for instigating all the chaos. He along with some others have blood on their hands.
I always told my children and grandson, if you are detained by a law enforcement officer, respect them and do what they say. They are only trying to protect us, the citizens of this country. But they have to protect themselves as well, they want to go home to their families, as everyone else does.
I do not like it when good innocent people get hurt or die unnecessarily! This wasn’t such a case!
“Pretti’s parents told reporters their son became involved in demonstrations after the January death of Renee Good, and that he felt compelled to act because of what he saw as injustices in immigration enforcement. They described him as someone who cared about people and who wanted to stand up for those he believed were being mistreated.”
Alex was armed with 9mm Sig Sauer with two magazines when he was “supposedly” wanting to be part of a “so called peaceful protest” but none of these are peaceful or even genuine protests; they are “activist driven riots and illegal interference!”
Alex was an idiot, ass, moron and dangerous troublemaker who had no business being there! I will say perhaps he went insane or had deep mental issues which means HE needed to be in a HOSPITAL where such people get the help they need, but “he absolutely did not belong at that ICE operation with a dangerous weapon;” and now being all the above he is all done! STUPID!!!