An intensive care nurse who worked for years treating critically ill military veterans has been identified as the man shot dead during a struggle with federal agents in Minneapolis.
Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, was killed shortly after 9am Saturday near Glam Doll Donuts at 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue, after an altercation involving multiple federal officers.
Local media, including the Star Tribune, identified Pretti as the man who was gunned down. Minneapolis police confirmed the deceased was a white, 37‑year‑old Minnesota resident and US citizen.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told the Daily Mail that agents were in the area attempting to apprehend ‘an illegal alien wanted for violent assault’ when they were approached by Pretti.
Federal authorities identified the man they were initially seeking as Jose Huerta‑Chuma, an Ecuadorian national.
Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino said Huerta‑Chuma has a criminal history that includes domestic assault, disorderly conduct and driving without a license, though federal court records did not list any cases under his name.
According to DHS, Pretti was armed and carrying two magazines at the time he was detained. The agency later released a photograph of a nine‑millimeter semi‑automatic handgun it said was recovered during the clash.
Officials claimed officers attempted to disarm Pretti but that he ‘violently resisted’ before a Border Patrol agent fired the fatal shot.
A Minneapolis man who was gunned down during a struggle with federal agents has been identified by local media as Alex Jeffrey Pretti
Pretti is a registered nurse, US citizen and a resident of Minnesota who had a gun license according to officials
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told the Daily Mail that the deceased was armed with two magazines, and the gun has since been recovered by federal authorities (pictured)
Pretti was pronounced dead at the scene. DHS said he did not have identification on him at the time.
Video from the scene shows agents wrestling with Pretti and taking him to the ground moments before the shooting.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Pretti had no serious criminal history, with records showing only minor parking violations. O’Hara added that he was a lawful gun owner with a valid permit.
Pretti worked as a registered nurse for the Veterans Health Administration at the Minneapolis VA hospital and earned a reported $90,783 in 2023, according to public records.
Records also show he attended the University of Minnesota and most recently listed himself as a ‘junior scientist’ on LinkedIn.
Those who worked alongside him said his death has been devastating.
‘I worked with him daily for years at the VA hospital,’ Ruth Anway, a Minneapolis‑based nurse, told the Daily Mail. ‘He was an ICU nurse. He worked with veterans. He was a really good guy. He definitely did not deserve to get killed.’
Anway said she worked with Pretti for about six years and also collaborated with him earlier in his career while he was in nursing school, including on a research study at the VA. She declined to go into detail, saying the hospital’s federal status limited what she could discuss.
‘As a friend who just saw my friend get killed, I just want to say he was a good guy,’ she said. Anway last saw Pretti a few months ago.
She described him as politically engaged and deeply informed.
‘He was always keeping up with the news and always just really well informed about what was going on,’ she said. ‘We would always talk about everything going on in the world.’
Anway recalled working with Pretti on January 6, 2021, as the US Capitol was attacked.
A protester appeared to be detained after an ICE agent reportedly shot a man several times in Minneapolis
‘I remember we were working together and I just looked at him and said, “What is going on? This is crazy,”’ she said.
She said Pretti strongly believed in political activism and standing up for what he saw as injustice, adding that she believed those convictions explained why he was at the scene on Saturday.
‘I just know he was there because he felt conviction,’ she said.
Anway also described Minneapolis as feeling ‘really weird right now,’ amid heightened immigration enforcement.
‘I sort of thought that living in a 1938 German sort of environment would be a bit more apparent,’ she said. ‘Yet I live in this very white neighborhood that hasn’t seen a lot of ICE. It’s strange because I’m not personally affected – except I’m seeing things in the news that are deeply upsetting.’
‘I know people who have been deported. People who are making plans to leave, even though they’re here legally. That does not feel like America to me,’ she added.
Dr. Dimitri Drekonja, chief of the Infectious Diseases Section at the Minneapolis VA and a professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota, also paid tribute to Pretti in a Facebook post.
‘Alex Pretti was a colleague at the VA,’ Drekonja wrote. ‘We hired him to recruit for our trial. He became an ICU nurse. I loved working with him. He was a good, kind person who lived to help – and these f***ers executed him.’
Local police identified the man as a white 37-year-old US citizen from Minneapolis
A federal agent and a protestor pictured face to face amidst widespread protests
Drekonja said he felt a ‘white‑hot rage’ after learning of Pretti’s death, adding that Pretti worked closely with critically ill veterans and was known for his positive attitude.
‘He had such a great attitude,’ he wrote. ‘We’d chat between patients about trying to get in a mountain bike ride together. Will never happen now.’
Pretti had been living in Minneapolis but also had ties to Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Colorado.
The shooting marks the third recent incident involving federal agents in Minneapolis. It follows the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, a US citizen, on January 7, and another incident in which a federal agent wounded a man about a week later.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz condemned Saturday’s killing, calling it ‘another horrific shooting’ by federal agents deployed as part of a broader immigration crackdown.
‘Minnesota has had it. This is sickening,’ Walz said on X, calling on the White House to end the operation.
Saturday’s shooting sparked immediate protests, with bystanders yelling profanities at federal officers and telling them to leave the city.
Minneapolis has faced rising tensions amid the federal enforcement presence and ongoing protests – a backdrop shaped by prior high‑profile police killings, including the death of George Floyd in 2020.
