Feature
Thoughts on the Shooting Death of ICU Nurse Alex Pretti
Beyond right and left politics, this is about right and wrong
I. Shot
On January 24, 2026, in Minneapolis, when the temperature hovered around minus 3 degrees, a swarm of armed and masked ICE agents shoved Alex Pretti to the ground. They pepper-sprayed and pistol-whipped him before shooting multiple times at point-blank range.
Alex was an ICU registered nurse at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital.
Just before his death, he had been standing a few strides away, observing federal agents by filming them with his camera. He stepped forward into the scrum to protect a woman whom ICE had assaulted.
II. Smeared
Why does it matter that Alex was a nurse? Because embedded within nursing’s professional Code of Ethics is the duty to respect and advocate for the human rights of all individuals. The public understands this. Year after year, a vast majority of Americans tell Gallup they trust nurses to act with integrity.
Soon after the incident, the DHS secretary, FBI Director, and the president attempted to justify the shooting by smearing Alex’s reputation, calling him a “domestic terrorist” and “would-be assassin who came to massacre law enforcement.” Alex never touched his legally-permitted holstered gun during the encounter.
Who is more trustworthy — the ICU nurse, or this administration?
III. Selma
On a Sunday in March, 1965, a group of about 600 people intended to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, to march to the capital Montgomery, to demonstrate support for voting rights.
Waiting on the other side was a posse of state troopers armed with tear gas, billy clubs, and bullwhips, some on horseback. The demonstrators marched anyway.
Some historians say “Bloody Sunday” was the turning point in the Civil Rights movement. Television cameras broadcast the violence into 50 million homes that night, awakening the conscience of the nation. Less than five months later the Voting Rights Act was signed into law.
Could Alex Pretti’s horrific shooting finally be the turning point against the actions of an increasingly cruel government?
IV. Courage
In 2016, historian Timothy Snyder published a slim volume titled On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century.
Lesson 20 reads: “Be as courageous as you can.” I think of Alex Pretti here: “If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die under tyranny.”
My hope is two-fold: that we remember Alex Pretti — and all nurses — for the compassionate care they give, even in the face of personal danger. And that his death is not in vain.
CATHERINE RHODES is the editor & publisher of Working Nurse magazine.
