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Alex Pretti Was a Good Man at Time of Great Evil

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/ January 25, 2026

Alex Pretti Was a Good Man at Time of Great Evil

The 37-year-old ICU nurse was killed helping another ICE victim. We must honor his sacrifice.

Joan Walsh

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Flowers are left at a makeshift memorial in the area where Alex Pretti was shot dead a day earlier by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 25, 2026.
(Octavio Jones / AFP via Getty Images)

On Saturday morning in Minneapolis, federal agents murdered 37-year-old Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse at a local Veterans Authority hospital. Pretti was trying to help a woman whom federal agents shoved violently to the ground. A fellow ICE observer, the woman flew a few feet through the air and landed hard; it had to hurt. “Are you OK?” Pretti asked her, according to bystanders. Those were his last known words. He kept trying to help the woman, and the agents kept trying to stop him, finally shooting him in the head at close range, execution-style, and then at least nine more times. (You can see videos, and a still photo of his execution I wish I hadn’t seen, all over social media.) Pretti died on the scene.

The last Minnesotan murdered in the federal occupation of Minneapolis, just more than two weeks ago, was Renee Good, a mother, a poet, and a lesbian, whose last words to her murderer, Jonathan Ross, were, “I’m not mad at you, dude,” as she smiled at him. According to his own phone video recording, Ross’s first words after he shot Good were “Fucking bitch.”

Much has been written about the misogyny behind the murder of Good, as well as the defamation of her wife, Becca. The Department of Justice is investigating Becca Good, not Ross, for her alleged activist ties. Renee seemed to die for the crime of being a happy lesbian with a spunky wife who was confronting ICE, respectfully, and with humor. In Becca’s last words before her wife’s murder, she told Ross to take a lunch break.

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Federal law enforcement officials are smearing Pretti, just like they did Good, claiming he was “brandishing” a weapon. (He was legally carrying a holstered pistol.) Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called him a “domestic terrorist,” and Border Control commander at large Greg Bovino, the mini-Nazi, said he tried to “massacre law enforcement.” Multiple videos from multiple angles showed their claims to be slanderous lies.

How do we make sense of Pretti being murdered for coming to the aid of another female ICE victim? We don’t. Maybe it’s a coincidence, maybe it’s related. We know the fascists don’t want white people standing up for immigrants and other people of color, …

Another Schumer Shutdown? Top Dem Vows Senate Dems Won’t Support DHS Funding Bill
Are they actually going to vote on something real?

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Hours after Border Patrol fatally shot an armed man Saturday in Minneapolis, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he and other Democrats will not back a legislative package including a bill funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), potentially risking a partial government shutdown.

The Senate has until Jan. 30 to pass a six-bill package funding multiple federal government agencies which, as presently being considered by the upper chamber, includes the DHS bill.

If a total of 60 senators do not support the package by the deadline, the country will face a partial government shutdown—less than four months removed from a record 43-day standoff which Schumer and the vast majority of his caucus consistently voted to prolong.

“What’s happening in Minnesota is appalling—and unacceptable in any American city,” Schumer wrote in an X post late Saturday.

“Democrats sought common sense reforms in the [DHS] spending bill, but because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President [Donald] Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement].”

“I will vote no. Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included,” the minority leader added.

Since Republicans hold only 53 seats in the Senate, they will need the support of at least a handful of Democrats to reach the 60-vote threshold to break the upper chamber’s filibuster. Republicans also need every senator regardless of party to agree to accelerate the spending package in order for it to pass by the Jan. 30 deadline, Politico reported.

Border Patrol agents Saturday morning shot and killed Alex Pretti, 37. Pretti, at the time, was armed with a semi-automatic handgun while federal officers were “conducting a targeted operation” in the city, DHS told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Pretti’s death came just 17 days after an ICE officer, also a 37-year-old American citizen, fatally shot Renee Good, whom DHS claimed “weaponized her vehicle” in “an act of domestic terrorism.”

In an earlier Saturday afternoon X post, Schumer expressed support for removing ICE agents from Minnesota, a position echoed by a number of elected Democrats in the state, including Rep. Ilhan Omar.

The DHS funding bill narrowly passed in the House on Thursday with only seven moderate Democrats — all representing Republican-leaning or swing districts—voting in favor. Conversely, one Republican, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie voted against the bill. Massie is a fiscal hawk facing a Trump-backed primary challenger.

Even before Schumer vowed he and his caucus will vote no on the six-bill package including the DHS bill, analysts pointed to the increasing likelihood of a partial shutdown due to Democrats’ current attitudes toward immigration enforcement.

“This ICE situation is a nightmare for the Senate. Cannot see a scenario in which Senate Dems can vote for this 6-bill package which includes DHS funding,” Punchbowl News founder Jake Sherman wrote in a Saturday afternoon post to X.

“Govt shuts down Friday. First Senate procedural vote likely not until Wednesday, …

A battle over the truth erupts after deadly Minneapolis shooting
Every delay has consequences.

In the wake of another fatal shooting involving immigration agents, Trump administration and Minnesota officials are locked in a heated dispute over what exactly transpired and who’s to blame for the death of 37-year-old Alex Pretti.

And they don’t just disagree in their interpretation of the events — they fundamentally differ on how the shooting transpired and what exactly triggered it.

Border Patrol agents shot and killed Pretti on Saturday during a tense encounter between observers and federal agents, a dynamic that has led to several violent interactions as the Trump administration escalates its nationwide immigration crackdown. His death comes less than a month after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good. The scenes of the shootings were roughly two miles apart, and protesters flooded the streets after both.

Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino on Sunday accused Pretti of having “injected” himself into a law enforcement investigation. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti had committed a “felony” by impeding law enforcement. And Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche blamed local state officials for what he called an “entirely avoidable” event.

But Minnesota officials see a different story in the footage. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Pretti was lawfully armed and exercising his constitutional rights, and Democrat Sen. Amy Klobuchar told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the video shows him holding a cellphone and helping a woman up, not acting aggressively toward agents.

Shortly after Saturday’s shooting, Noem offered one account of the incident: She said Pretti “approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun” and that he “violently resisted” when the officers attempted to disarm him.

Noem then told Fox News Sunday that agents on Saturday “clearly feared for their lives” before shooting Pretti. She and other federal officials have claimed that Pretti was approaching agents with a gun.

“We do know that he came to that scene and impeded a law enforcement operation, which is against federal law. It's a felony. When he did that, interacting with those agents when they tried to get him to disengage, he became aggressive and resisted them throughout that process,” Noem said. “These officers used their training, followed their protocols and were in fear of their lives and the people around them.”

But Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Pretti held a concealed carry license and was exercising his constitutional right.

Despite Noem’s claim that the agents feared for their lives, O’Hara, speaking on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday morning, said he had seen no evidence Pretti brandished a weapon during the encounter.

“You have a Second Amendment …

Trump’s Outrageous Threats Get Real Results
Who's accountable for the results?

Think about it. Heads of government do not normally reveal the texts of private communications from other heads of state.

Yet that is what Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store of Norway did Sunday, on the first weekend of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where the international press would have no difficulty finding appalled foreign leaders to comment.

You could think of this as a hostile act of a statesman appalled that the American head of government does not know that the government of Norway does not decide who gets the Nobel Peace Prize.

It is probably better to think of it as an intervention by a sympathetic observer who has noticed that President Donald Trump backs down from untenable positions in response to ructions in political and financial markets.

Which is what Trump has done between the publication of his letter on Sunday and his speech at Davos on Wednesday. On Sunday, he seemed to be threatening war with Denmark, and European commentators, not without reason, lamented that he was risking breaking up the NATO alliance out of pique of not being awarded a prize by a committee that was never going to honor a non-leftist American president.

Proof of which was the granting of that prize to President Barack Obama in 2009 for what even Obama himself admitted was for no tangible accomplishment.

And Trump has never forgotten the ridicule heaped on him by Obama at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, ridicule that led directly to that ride down the Trump Tower escalator four years later.

Actually, Trump has some valid points on Greenland. It sits astride missile, drone, and air transport routes between North America and Western Russia and Eastern Europe. The United States would have even more flexibility than it does under current agreements with Denmark if it were to become U.S. territory. That’s one reason the U.S. holds on to Guam in the West Pacific and has spent billions upgrading military facilities there.

All that said, Trump’s usual negotiating technique of starting off with extravagant demands was, in the careful words of social scientist Charles Murray, “next-level crazy.” Denmark has been an active ally of the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq, has increased its rate of defense spending above levels Trump demanded, and has adopted immigration policies in line with Trump’s advocacy.

With Denmark as with Canada, as with fellow Republicans in Georgia and other states, Trump’s obnoxious maximalist demands have alienated him from sympathy and empowered the forces against him. Other leaders have figured out that he requires gushers of praise to permeate every dialogue, and they’re probably ready with encomiums for his avowals in his Davos speech that he won’t use violence to obtain Greenland.

Some surely consider this a humiliating process. But national leaders dealing with American presidents at least since the time of Franklin Roosevelt have felt themselves duty-bound to cater to their personal styles (Roosevelt’s was condescension, Lyndon Johnson’s domineering) despite personal distaste. Only a leader as disciplined and aloof as Charles de Gaulle dared do otherwise.

And it …

Israel to reopen Rafah crossing on a ‘limited basis’
What's the administration thinking here?

Israel has agreed to reopen the Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, in what is a key part of the second phase of the ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his security cabinet for discussions on the crossing point earlier on Sunday. His office announced hours after that it would be reopened on a “limited basis.”

“As part of President Trump’s 20-point plan, Israel has agreed to open the Rafah crossing on a limited basis for the passage of people only, with a full Israeli oversight mechanism,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

A sticking point was the return of the remains of the last hostage taken during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel.

Netanyahu maintained that the reopening is still “conditioned on the return of all living hostages and the execution of 100% effort on the part of Hamas to locate and return all deceased hostages.”

Hamas released all of the remaining living hostages last year, though the remains of one hostage have still not been located.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

The Israel Defense Forces has launched a “targeted operation” to retrieve those remains, which are that of Ran Gvili, a 24-year-old policeman who was killed in southern Israel on Oct. 7. They are currently searching a cemetery in northern Gaza for his body.

“Upon completion of this operation, and in accordance with what has been agreed upon with the US, Israel will open the Rafah Crossing,” Netanyahu’s office said.

This is a developing story.

Schumer calls on Senate GOP to scrap DHS funding bill to avoid shutdown
Same show, different day.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) reiterated his promise to oppose funding the Department of Homeland Security and suggested to “rewrite” the appropriations bill instead, as another possible government shutdown looms large this week.

Schumer voiced his opposition to the DHS funding bill after 37-year-old Alex Pretti was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent during an immigration operation on Saturday in Minneapolis. The fatal shooting is the second officer-involved incident in the city this month after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed Renee Good on Jan. 7.

“Senate Republicans have seen the same horrific footage that all Americans have watched of the blatant abuses of Americans by ICE in Minnesota. The appalling murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti on the streets of Minneapolis must lead Republicans to join Democrats in overhauling ICE and CBP to protect the public,” Schumer said in a statement on Sunday. “Senate Republicans must work with Democrats to advance the other five funding bills while we work to rewrite the DHS bill. This is [the] best course of action, and the American people are on our side.”

Schumer echoed the proposals from Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Jack Reed (D-RI), who suggested dropping the bill and instead pass the other five. Other Democratic senators have suggested reworking the current DHS bill that narrowly passed the House last week, though time is running out.

The deadline to fund the government is Jan. 30, and the Senate is out of session on Monday due to the winter storm affecting the Northeast. Should the upper chamber not reach a consensus on the bill by the end of this week, there will be at least a partial government shutdown — and the second one in recent months.

Late last year, debate over expiring COVID-era Obamacare subsidies led to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, lasting 43 days.

SCHIFF SAYS HE’S NOT GIVING ICE OR BORDER PATROL ‘ANOTHER DIME’ AFTER PRETTI SHOOTING

That shutdown fight ended with a bipartisan agreement to negotiate the subsidies, and the Senate will need another given Democrats’ stated opposition to DHS funding, the Senate GOP’s narrow majority, and the 60-vote threshold needed to pass appropriations bills.

The Washington Examiner has reached out to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) for comment.

Bill Clinton says Trump admin 'told us not to believe what we've seen' after latest Minnesota shooting
Every delay has consequences.

Former President Bill Clinton said on Sunday, after another fatal shooting in Minneapolis involving federal immigration agents, that agents are engaging in "increasingly aggressive and antagonistic tactics" and that the Trump administration told Americans not to believe what they can see for themselves.
Alex Pretti, 37, was shot and killed on Saturday by Border Patrol agents while recording federal immigration operations in Minneapolis. An ICU nurse, Pretti appeared to be attempting to attend to a woman agents knocked down when he was sprayed with an irritant, pushed to the ground and beaten. An agent was seen pulling Pretti's gun from his waistband before other agents fired several shots and killed him.
The shooting follows recent unrest over the ICE-involved killing of Renee Nicole Good in the same city earlier this month.
"In recent weeks, we've watched horrible scenes play out in Minneapolis and other communities that I never thought would take place in America. People, including children, have been seized from their homes, workplaces, and the street by masked federal agents," Clinton said in a statement.
BARACK AND MICHELLE OBAMA SLAM ICE AFTER MINNEAPOLIS SHOOTING, URGE ACCOUNTABILITY
"Peaceful protesters and citizens exercising their constitutional right to observe and document law enforcement have been arrested, beaten, teargassed, and most searingly, in the cases of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, shot and killed," he continued.
Clinton said "this is unacceptable" and "should have been avoided."
"To make matters even worse, at every turn, the people in charge have lied to us, told us not to believe what we've seen with our own eyes, and pushed increasingly aggressive and antagonistic tactics, including impeding investigations by local authorities," he said.
BORDER PATROL-INVOLVED SHOOTING REPORTED IN MINNEAPOLIS
"Over the course of a lifetime, we face only a few moments where the decisions we make and the actions we take will shape our history for years to come," the former president added. "This is one of them. If we give our freedoms away after 250 years, we might never get them back. It is up to all of us who believe in the promise of American democracy to stand up, speak out, and show that our nation still belongs to We the People."

You Thought the Video Was Bad: Anti-ICE Protesters Ambush of MN Cities Church Is Even Worse Than Reported
Who's accountable for the results?

As my colleague Brad Slager wrote on Thursday concerning the state of Minnesota, we are living in a cycle of perpetual outrage. I'll add entitlement to that equation. Thinking that the First Amendment gives you the right to harass, attack, and do harm to federal agents because you think criminal illegals need your protection, and demanding justice for activists who made poor choices that get them killed, requires some next-level deception, heavy drugs, or a combination of both. As RedState reported, one of the protests fully jumped the shark. In a coordinated attack, a group of activists stormed a St. Paul, MN church to terrorize the parishioners who simply came to church to worship. 

The far-left network that helped put Alex Pretti in harm's way, then made him a martyr
Who's accountable for the results?

The skirmish that led to Saturday's fatal shooting of an agitator by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis and the response that followed were driven by a complex network of far-left organizations with a wide range of causes, a Fox News Digital investigation found.
A coordinated web of encrypted chats, street alerts and tracking of ICE "Abductors" in a sophisticated database reviewed by Fox News Digital shows that agitators were already mobilized at the scene where 37-year-old Alex Pretti was killed minutes before any shots were fired. ICE and Border Patrol agents were there to arrest an illegal immigrant criminal, and Pretti and others were there, outside a donut shop, to meet them as part of a strategic pattern of organized interference with law enforcement operations.
Over the following hours, a national network of socialist, communist and Marxist-Leninist cells in the United States leveraged the tragic fatality into a nationwide protest operation. While grief and outrage over Pretti's death is genuine, the network's real-time rapid response, using short sensational video clips and emojis as weapons of propaganda, offers a window into the disciplined logistics, messaging and coordination of far-left warriors fomenting insurgency-like confrontation with authorities.
VANCE CALLS MINNEAPOLIS UNREST 'ENGINEERED CHAOS' AFTER DEADLY SHOOTING
"This level of engineered chaos is unique to Minneapolis. It is the direct consequence of far left agitators, working with local authorities," Vice President JD Vance observed in a Sunday post on X.
The encrypted Signal messages obtained by Fox News Digital in real time show that anti-ICE "rapid responders" were actively tracking, broadcasting and summoning "backup" around federal agents outside Glam Doll Donuts on Nicollet Avenue, where the shooting occurred. Local "rapid responders" made at least 26 entries into a database called "MN ICE Plates" in the critical hours before and after the killing, documenting the license plate numbers and details of alleged ICE vehicles they claimed to see around Nicollet Avenue.
The entry at row 344 read, "At the nicollet [sic] murder," chronicling a black Jeep Wagoneer at the location with agents allegedly "involved in shooting." Row 338 had a "Glam Doll Donuts" entry, tracking a black Ford Taurus. 
BONDI BLAMES MINNEAPOLIS LEADERS AFTER ARMED SUSPECT KILLED, UNREST ERUPTS DURING ICE OPERATION
At 9:50 a.m. ET, just before the killing, a user identified as "Willow" shared a 22-second video on an encrypted Signal chat for anti-ICE "rapid responders."
"26and 3rd," wrote "Willow," quickly …

Trump confirms federal review of Minneapolis shooting that killed nurse: 'Reviewing everything'
Who's accountable for the results?

President Trump confirmed his administration is "reviewing everything" in the wake of the Minneapolis shooting that left 37-year-old nurse Alex J. Pretti dead.
Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Trump stopped short of confirming whether the federal agent who fired the fatal shots on Jan. 24 acted appropriately.
"We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination," Trump told the outlet as questions mounted over the incident and the broader immigration operation in the city.
Pretti, an ICU nurse, was shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent while filming federal officers on a Minneapolis street.
GOP SEN. CASSIDY BREAKS WITH TRUMP OVER DEADLY SHOOTING BY BORDER PATROL AGENT IN MINNEAPOLIS
The officer's operation was targeting Jose Huerta-Chuma, an illegal immigrant with a criminal history including domestic assault for intentional conflict bodily harm, disorderly conduct and driving without a valid license.
Federal officials initially claimed Pretti approached agents with a 9 mm handgun and resisted disarmament.
Bystander video and eyewitness accounts circulating online raised questions about that version of events and whether Pretti was threatening officers when he was shot.
TIM WALZ COMPARES MINNESOTA ICE ACTIONS TO HOLOCAUST AND ANNE FRANK: 'HIDING IN THEIR HOUSES'
"I don’t like any shooting. I don’t like it," Trump said, adding that Pretti carried "a very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines… That doesn’t play good either."
Trump also tied the federal presence in Minnesota to what he described as a sprawling welfare-fraud scandal in the state, arguing that immigration enforcement was necessary to address broader abuses.
"It’s the biggest fraud anyone has seen," the president said.
The fraud claims in the state have been a central part of the administration's need to ramp up federal operations there.
VANCE CALLS MINNEAPOLIS UNREST 'ENGINEERED CHAOS' AFTER DEADLY SHOOTING
The Minneapolis shooting of Pretti also marked the second death that happened in a confrontation between federal immigration officers and civilians in the city.
Renee Good was shot and killed on Jan. 7 by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent during a different operation.
That incident fueled protests and spotlighted the role of ICE in domestic law enforcement actions.
"At some point we will leave. We’ve done, they’ve done a phenomenal job," Trump said without offering a time frame for when agents might depart.
"We’ll leave a different group of people there for the financial fraud," he told the outlet.
White House press …