The American Nurses Association (ANA) has issued a statement saying it is “deeply disturbed and saddened” about Saturday’s shooting death of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse with the Minneapolis VA Health Care Center.
The ANA statement called for a “full, unencumbered investigation and urges that findings be shared promptly and clearly so Alex’s loved ones and the public have answers.”
Pretti, 37, was shot by a federal agent during a heated confrontation between protesters and agents taking part in an immigration crackdown. The Department of Homeland Security alleged Pretti approached Border Patrol agents with a handgun and “violently resisted” when they tried to disarm him. Local officials disputed that characterization.
Pretti had been issued a nursing license in 2021, which was active through March of this year, ABC said state records showed.
The network quoted a co-worker of Pretti’s, Dr. Dmitri Drekonja, saying “to those of us who know him it’s galling and enraging” to hear how Homeland Security has portrayed him.
“He was the type of person you enjoyed being around and the notion that this helpful, smiling joking guy was being labeled a terrorist? It’s galling,” he told ABC News.
His family told the Associated Press that Pretti was upset about President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis and had participated in previous protests. They said he had a permit to carry a concealed weapon in Minnesota but never knew him to carry it.
The ANA statement issued Saturday said it is concerned about violence against nurses both at work and elsewhere.
“One in four nurses already experience workplace violence,” it noted. “As incidents with federal law enforcement continue to rise across the country, we are deeply concerned for the safety of nurses, both on the job and in the communities they serve.”
