Alex Pretti, a registered nurse in Minneapolis, was killed by federal agents on Saturday.

It was January 2021. The weekly death rates from Covid were the highest of any point in the pandemic, either before or after. Medical providers were getting sick and disabled and they were dying. Burnout was rampant as they worked long hours for months during surges, battling the virus alongside misinformation and threats against their lives for doing their jobs. 

That’s when Alex Pretti became a registered nurse. He worked at the Veterans Affairs hospital, eventually moving to the ICU — caring for the sickest of the sick in what may be the most demanding job in nursing.

“He wanted to help people,” said Dimitri Drekonja, chief of infectious diseases at the VA hospital and professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota, who worked with Pretti at the hospital and on a research project. “He was a super nice, super helpful guy – looked after his patients. I’m just stunned.”

Man killed in Minneapolis by federal agents identified as VA nurse Alex Pretti: ‘He wanted to help people,’ The Guardian

I spoke with Dr. Drekonja yesterday, soon after Pretti was identified as the Minnesota man killed by federal agents at 9:05 am on Saturday. I wrote a quick profile of Pretti here.

I usually avoid videos of shootings, but this time I’ve watched every one I see, from every angle. By these accounts, Pretti spent his last moment trying to help up a legal observer who had been pushed to the ground by federal agents. His last words were “are you okay?”

“From what I can see, he was trying to help pull someone away, which is just totally in character for him,” Drekonja told me.

Yet Pretti does not seem to have been given the same care. A doctor on the scene said he was initially blocked from examining Pretti and none of the agents gave him CPR. Instead, they appeared to be counting his bullet wounds.

Over the past day and a half, more details have emerged about the kind of person Pretti was.

Pretti would “tell people off” for making sexist comments about women, according to a doctor who worked with Pretti at the VA hospital in Minneapolis. He bought her coffee on a particularly bad day and “saved her mental health” during internship. She called him a “fierce protector of humanity.”

“He really believed in doing good and had a strong moral compass,” a former girlfriend wrote. “I kept thinking to check in on him, tell him to be careful during this ICE occupation, because I knew he would be out there making sure people were safe and standing up for people.”

The daughter of a former patient said Pretti was the “kindest, most calming and warm soul who helped us understand what was happening and showed deep care for us and my Dad.”

The son of another patient posted a video of Pretti reading the final salute for a veteran.

“Today we remember that freedom is not free,” Pretti said.