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By Joshua Scheer
Some of the responses to the brutal murder of Alex Pretti by federal agents. Pretti, a U.S. citizen and an ICU nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital known for his care and compassion, was shot and killed Saturday morning near Nicollet Avenue. Family members and colleagues say he was participating in protests against federal immigration actions and was filming or attempting to intervene when federal officers confronted him.
His family speaking this was from CNN’s reporter Brian Setler
“We are heartbroken but also very angry. Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the hero term lightly. However his last thought and act was to protect a woman. The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed. Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.”
This was a tweet from a former boss of Alex’s
One of my former research assistants was killed by ICE in Minneapolis today😢
— Aasma Shaukat MD MPH (@AasmaShaukatMD) January 24, 2026
Alex was the kindest, sweetest human and a ICU nurse with a bright future ahead of him
May his soul rest in peace and this senseless carnage stop💔 pic.twitter.com/h0ljkqxqQp
The response from the federal government with Congressman Jimmy Gomez asking what we should all be thinking now “Why did… Commander Bovino only take two questions, then abruptly shut down the press conference?” asked US Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif). “Because he knows he can’t defend cold-blooded murder.”
Minutes after claiming the victim wanted to "massacre" law enforcement, Bovino is asked to specify when exactly the individual allegedly pulled his gun on ICE agents
— nikki mccann ramírez (@NikkiMcR) January 24, 2026
Bovino then ducks the question and says the incident is "under investigation" pic.twitter.com/My6MQm2n6M
Here is Noem
Kristi Noem just said: "I don't know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign." That was said to justify the killing of this ICU nurse.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 24, 2026
Carrying guns has been a staple of right-wing protests, especially during COVID. That's legal: https://t.co/OtTsVRsqza pic.twitter.com/rWJ5l2nRQJ
What tears????? I didn’t see one. Man knock it off! That boy ate some lemon heads before walking into court. 🤣🤣🤣 https://t.co/LKwYssIUmD
— LeBron James (@KingJames) November 11, 2021
Thanks, Glenn. And Kristi — remember this guy who crossed state lines to target anti-Trump protesters? I wonder if she has given him a job. Some democrats are wondering if this is a reason to be masked they learned from their last coup. With democrats last week demanding documents from Noem and Pam Bondi how many rioters “have been invited to join the ranks of this Administration, including among the masked Department of Homeland Security agents and officers.”
From the Reichsleiter in the White House outright lies and as Slate says they ask us not to belive our eyes. With Miller tweeting “This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement,” an unsigned Homeland Security post said. “An assassin tried to murder federal agents,” Stephen Miller said. (JD Vance, the heir apparent to the Republican presidential nomination, reposted Miller.) And what about the man who is nominally still running the country? Donald Trump pointed to a picture of Pretti’s handgun, confiscated by the agents, and noted it was loaded and “ready to go – What is that all about?”
It’s about the attempted corruption of our eyes and ears. That’s why pro‑Israel Democrats are furious that we have social media—instant call and response, in real time. This is how we are combating these villains as it’s happening, before the narrative can be sealed shut. Chris Hedges tweeted that this is like the boomerang coming home: after the genocide in Gaza and the brutal wars in Iraq, we are now witnessing what they believe they can get away with here. Greenwald calls this the Israelization of the United States. Here is that tweet with Stephen Millers which was so vile that X.com blocked it.
Even if you want to justify this ICE killing of an American, it's a blatant lie to claim that "a would-be assassin tried to murder federal law enforcement." That didn't happen.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 24, 2026
Also, automatically labelling Americans killed by ICE as "terrorists" is the Israelization of the US. https://t.co/Iheu60ntoI
Right now in Minneapolis, massive protests have erupted after federal agents shot and killed a 37-year-old ICU nurse, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, during an immigration enforcement operation — drawing thousands of demonstrators into the streets in shock and outrage. I dont want to put all the videos but strikes and stopages and protests are raging across this land.
RIGHT NOW: Minneapolis is SHUT DOWN.
— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) January 24, 2026
20,000+ people have flooded the streets in an emergency protest after federal agents killed ICU nurse Alex Pretti.
This was an execution. And the city is responding like it knows it. pic.twitter.com/KDXwK6es42
Congressman Ted Lieu tweeted the following. I responded by asking him a simple question: You have power — will you use it? What he is calling for here is a start. Below, Senator Elizabeth Warren urges the Senate to halt the vote on funding.
Calling for an immediate nationwide stand down of ICE and CBP interior operations. pic.twitter.com/ghY85ORScd
— Rep. Ted Lieu (@RepTedLieu) January 24, 2026
We can all see with our own eyes what ICE is doing to our neighbors.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) January 25, 2026
It’s time for the Senate to step up and do the right thing. Stop this violence. pic.twitter.com/ztCgwTLdSq
The real “domestic terrorists” are in the White House.
— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) January 24, 2026
The victim, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, was reportedly a law abiding US citizen & an ICU nurse at the VA. He was licensed to carry a firearm.
Trump & Miller are responsible for his killing & are now lying to the American people. https://t.co/30VWgRqF9I
It took the brutal murder of a citizen—not the first, mind you, and certainly not the first whose Fourth Amendment rights were trampled—to spur action. Yet the bill is now being held up in the Senate over concerns about enforcement policies.
“What’s happening in Minnesota is appalling —and unacceptable in any American city. Democrats sought common sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, but because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE. I will vote no,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement Saturday. “Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included.”
“The Trump Administration and Kristi Noem are putting undertrained, combative federal agents on the streets with no accountability. They are oppressing Americans and are at odds with local law enforcement,” Cortez Masto said in a statement. “This is clearly not about keeping Americans safe, it’s brutalizing U.S. citizens and law-abiding immigrants. I will not support the current Homeland Security funding bill.”
They tackled my senator for daring to ask a question and sprayed the newest member of the House in the face. But, as Schmmur puts it, it seems it takes killings to trigger common sense. Stop this madness there is no common snese when dealing with authoritarian thugs Chuck. That is precisely why we must work every day to hold them accountable.
This is June we had time.
Not to mention this
This again leaves out the countless unsung heroes who have been damaged and hurt by ICE over the last many months—so many images, so much work. We have been working, trying to do something. The idea that the government is so slow to respond is tragic, and again, this happens as the Court removes people’s rights to due process, so that citizens can be tackled to the ground if they look brown.
As Senator Chris Van Hollen has said — the real domestic terrorists: Trump and his cohort. And make no mistake, they don’t think we are paying attention, and they certainly don’t think we will fight back.
Van Hollen: "They really think the American people are stupid. I mean, we can all see the video. We saw the video with Renee Good. We saw the video with Alex Pretti. The real domestic terrorists are in the White House right now." pic.twitter.com/YmWF2FonWM
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 25, 2026
This is designed to divide and distract. Once people are turned against one another, the real work stops. Hatred becomes the weapon, and the public is too fractured to challenge the elites who profit from repression, war, and permanent crisis. The billionaire class wins.
I think to end with Ben Norton saying it best “Agents of the US Gestapo executed a man in broad daylight, shooting him 10 times, after pepper spraying him and beating him on the ground. The US is an authoritarian police state where if you protest against the imperial regime, federal agents murder you.”
Rest in power to those who have been murdered by the Trump regime, and to all those fighting—we must not let their sacrifices remain in vain.
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