People who knew Pretti describe him as ‘generous with his time’ and denounce the Trump administration’s assessment of him
Travis Vanden Heuvel had been following the recent news out of Minnesota for weeks. On Saturday morning, like many others, he saw video clips of the second fatal shooting by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis this month.
But the story became personal later that day. That afternoon, Vanden Heuvel’s former choir director reached out to tell him that the man who had been shot was Alex Pretti – a childhood friend with whom he had been in choir.
“My initial reaction was shock. With this happening, just a state away in Minnesota, it already felt close to home, and then when I found out that I knew the name of the victim, and I had memories associated with that name, it became even more real and tragic,” Vanden Heuvel said.
Now-viral footage shows Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse at Minneapolis VA Medical Center, being tackled to the ground before being fatally shot by federal immigration agents. Pretti had been filming them amid a surge of federal immigration enforcement operations in the city.
