The parents of Alex Pretti, the protester shot dead in Minneapolis: “I was shocked by what is happening in the United States” | Immigration in the United States

The outrage over the death of Renee Good on January 7 at the hands of an immigration agent and the brutality with which federal officials are repressing citizen protests in Minneapolis took Alex Jeffrey Pretti to the street last Saturday. And he did not return home. The shooting of several Border Patrol agents, the police force of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE), They left him lifeless, lying on the ground, just over three kilometers from his home. Surrounded by people screaming their anger and frustration at what they had just witnessed. He was a nurse by profession and was 37 years old.

Pretti confronted officers to protect a woman who had been pepper-sprayed. He was forcibly subdued and shot at point-blank range. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem referred to the victim as a “domestic terrorist,” but people who knew him offer a very different profile. “The disgusting lies that the Administration has spread about our son are reprehensible and disgusting,” his family said in a statement. “Please let the truth be known about our son. “He was a good man.” they asked. Pretti’s parents told the AP agency this Sunday that their last conversation with him was about the authoritarian drift that the US Government was taking: “I was very shocked by what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the United States.”

Pretti grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he played football, baseball, and track at Preble High School. He was a member of the Boy Scouts and sang in the Green Bay children’s choir, according to those close to him. After graduating, he entered the University of Minnesota, where he graduated in 2011 in biology, society and the environment, his family has noted. He worked as a research scientist before returning to university to train as a registered nurse.

His neighbors describe him as a calm and kind-hearted person. “A wonderful person,” Sue Gitar, who lived on the same block, told the AP agency. She said Pretti had moved into the building about three years ago and explained that if something suspicious happened in the neighborhood, or if they were worried there might be a gas leak, for example, he would always come out to help. “He has a big heart,” she said.

“We talk over the fence all the time,” said another neighbor, Jeanne Wiener. “He is the sweetest, kindest, most harmless and peaceful person you could ever meet,” he continued, speaking in the present tense. His neighbors knew that Pretti owned a gun – for which he had a permit, as Minnesota authorities have confirmed – but they did not see him as someone who usually carried it with him when he went out. Pretti lived alone with his dog, who died a year ago, although his neighbors do not describe him as a lonely person, since he used to receive visits from friends.

Alex Pretti worked as an intensive care (ICU) nurse at the city’s VA Health Care System. His co-workers remember him as someone who lived looking out for others. Dr. Dimitri Drekonja, with whom he worked for years, stated that He was competent and kind, the kind of person who cared about his job and his patients.. “He was an extraordinary colleague and friend,” he commented. “He always had a smile on his face.”

I shared with him the passion for mountain biking. According to statements from his relatives, Pretti was a lover of nature and outdoor activities, fond of walking and exploring. Pretti’s mother has said that her son was very concerned about the direction the country was taking, especially the repeal of environmental regulations by the Trump Administration. “I hated that people were destroying nature,” Susan Pretti told the AP. “He was a nature lover. He took his dog everywhere. He loved this country, but he hated what people were doing to it.”

Pretti was one of thousands of Minneapolis residents who have been demonstrating against the deployment of federal forces. At the end of December, the Trump Administration began sending agents to the city—governed by Democrats, like the state to which it belongs, Minnesota—in what it described as the largest immigration operation ever seen.

The deployment of some 3,000 agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) and the Border Patrol through the streets of the city have provoked outrage among the population, who are defying the extremely low temperatures to confront the brutality with which the arrests are being carried out. The clashes have left violent scenes, with agents using tear gas against citizens who record the abuses of officials with their cell phones.

Pretti’s ex-wife, who lives in California and prefers to remain anonymous, told the AP that she was not surprised that he had participated in the protests. He said that he was a Democratic voter and that he was part of the wave of street protests that occurred in Minneapolis after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in 2020, not far from the neighborhood where the couple lived. She described him as someone who could yell at police officers during a protest, but she had never seen him behave violently.

Also speaking to AP, his parents, who live in Colorado, said that the last conversation they had revolved around the situation in the country due to the Trump Administration’s immigration crusade. “He cared deeply about people and was very shocked by what was happening in Minneapolis and across the United States with ICE, as were millions of other people,” recalled Michael Pretti, Alex’s father.

“He thought it was terrible to kidnap children, to take people away… He cared about those people and knew it was wrong, so he participated in the protests,” she said. “We had this conversation with him about two weeks ago, we told him he could protest but not to get involved in anything, not to do anything stupid. And he said he knew it. He was clear about it.”

As happened to Renee Good, without intending it, Alex Fretti has become a hero of the resistance against Trump’s repressive policies and now it is because of him that thousands of citizens show their anger on the streets of their city.