Editor's note: This is a developing story.
A registered nurse was shot and killed Saturday morning in Minneapolis by federal agents, intensifying residents’ demonstrations against the immigration enforcement operation while triggering condemnation from professional associations and calls for de-escalation from healthcare employers.
The man has been identified by news outlets and local officials as Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen who worked at a Veterans Administration intensive care unit.
Widely circulating videos taken by bystanders and verified by news outlets show several officers wrestling Pretti, who was pepper sprayed, to the ground. The agents appear to pull a gun from the pile of bodies before at least one agent steps back and fires multiple times at Pretti.
The footage does not appear to show Pretti, who was holding a phone, having visibly drawn a weapon before the altercation.
Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino, in a Saturday press conference, said the man who was killed was not the target of the “targeted operation” agents were conducting. The official said agents were attempting to disarm him when he “violently resisted,” and that “fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, a border patrol agent fired defensive shots.”
Bovino and other Department of Homeland Security officials did not say that the man drew his weapon, but DHS said in a post on X that his possession of the handgun and two magazines "looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement."
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Saturday that Pretti is not believed to have a criminal record, and was licensed to own a firearm. Minnesota law permits licensed owners to carry handguns in public without concealment.
The shooting is the latest incident in a weeks-long saga of federal immigration enforcement and protests by residents and others critical of agents’ conduct and the Trump administration’s broader policies on immigration. That includes the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer.
Pretti’s death amplified demonstrations Saturday despite freezing temperatures. The Minnesota National Guard, which was activated by Gov. Tim Walz, has reportedly been assisting local police in preventing further confrontations at the site of the shooting and elsewhere in the city.
Condemnation from nursing groups, de-escalation pleas from healthcare employers
The American Nurses Association (ANA), in a statement released Saturday afternoon, said it was “deeply disturbed” by the incident.
“One in four nurses already experience workplace violence. 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.
“Nurses are advocates for the safety and well-being of their communities. They enter this profession to heal, to protect human life, and to show up for people in their most vulnerable moments,” the statement reads.
The ANA also called for transparency and “a full, unencumbered investigation” into the shooting.
Other nursing groups and local healthcare practitioners have previously condemned the federal government’s crackdown in Minnesota. Dozens of doctors and other staff affiliated with the Committee of Interns and Residents, the country’s largest house staff union, held a demonstration outside of Hennepin County Medical Center on Friday telling attendees that patients were avoiding needed care due to their fear of ICE.
"They are in our hospital right now," Zach Perez, M.D., a first-year family medicine resident at the hospital, reportedly said. "(ICE agents) are interfering with patient care, they are interfering with patients, restraining our patients."
National Nurses United (NNU), a 225,000-member national union of registered nurses, had released statements Friday demanding the removal of immigration enforcement agents from local communities and the broader abolition of ICE and applauding a general strike conducted by Minnesota residents Friday.
In another statement following Pretti's death, the union said its members "are horrified and outraged that immigration agents have once against committed cold-blooded murder of a public observer who posed no threat to them. NNU reiterated its calls to abolish ICE, and said it would be turning up the pressure on Congress ahead of a coming funding vote.
"National Nurses United calls for a no vote on the Homeland Security Appropriations bill that is up for Senate approval next week and demands Congress abolish ICE entirely," the statement reads. "We will be doing everything in our power to vote out any elected official who supports funding for this all-out assault on the health, safety, and civil rights of our people. Abolish ICE now.”
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the Veterans Affairs union with which Pretti was a local member, pointed a finger at the Trump administration's "reckless policy, inflammatory rhetoric and manufactured crisis over responsible leadership and de-escalation." The national union leader added that federal workers have found themselves "at the center of this political theater."
"I urge everyone to remain disciplined and measured in public, even as we are rightly angry," Kelley said. "Still, we must do what we can to maintain peace and calm. But do not mistake restraint for acceptance. Accountability will come, and AFGE will not be silent about the policies and decisions that led us here.”
The American Medical Association also issued a statement on Monday voicing deep concerns about immigration enforcement in and around hospitals and emergency rooms, calling it a “tactic fueling fear among patients and hospital staff alike.”
“When people are afraid to seek medical attention for themselves or their families, it threatens their health, impedes the ability of physicians to render care, and ultimately undermines basic trust in our health care institutions. To fulfill our oath and best serve our patients, physicians must be able to work in spaces that create a sense of safety for all, not fear for our most vulnerable,” David H. Aizuss, M.D., chair of the AMA Board of Trustees said.
On Saturday, the top executives of several local healthcare, medtech and biotech organizations headquartered in Minnesota were among dozens who signed onto a Minnesota Chamber of Commerce letter urging immediate de-escalation following Saturday's "tragic news."
Among the signatories were the heads of Mayo Clinic, UnitedHealth Group, Allina Healthcare, Essentia Health, Fairview Health Services, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, Children's Minnesota, CentraCare Health, HealthPartners, Medica and Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare. Also cosigning were the leaders of Medtronic, Prime Therapeutics, Boston Scientific and 3M.
"The recent challenges facing our state have created widespread disruption and tragic loss of life," the statement reads. "For the past several weeks, representatives of Minnesota’s business community have been working every day behind the scenes with federal, state and local officials to advance real solutions. These efforts have included close communication with the Governor, the White House, the Vice President and local mayors. There are ways for us to come together to foster progress."