Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves suggested 37-year-old intensive-care nurse Alex Pretti may have been to blame for his own killing because he had been legally carrying a holstered gun when federal agents shot him on a Minneapolis street. In a Facebook post on Saturday, the governor responded to the killing by calling pro-immigrant protesters “lawless hordes.”
Videos of the Saturday morning shooting show Pretti holding a phone in his right hand, his left hand empty. At one point, an officer shoves a woman, who appears to reach out to the ICU nurse for help; an officer then shoves Pretti. When the officer shoves another woman over, Pretti moves between the woman and the officer, and raises his hands as the officer deploys pepper spray. The officer grabs Pretti’s hand, sprays him again, and pushes him away. At least six officers immediately swarm the 37-year-old man, wrestling him to the ground and hitting him.
One officer standing over Pretti reaches down and pulls a holstered gun from Pretti’s waistband and walks away with it. Then, with Pretti looking down, holding himself up with his left knee and left hand, an officer is seen pulling his gun and pointing it at the ICU nurse’s back. A first shot rings out, and then more from multiple officers. Pretti falls to the ground as gunfire continues, and several masked officers back away with drawn guns. In total, officers fire 10 shots at Pretti.
In an interview on Fox News later that day, Mississippi’s governor pointed to the fact that Pretti had a weapon on his person as he defended federal immigration agents, saying that what “many of these protesters … want is chaos.”
“It seems very clear that there was an individual who went up to a law enforcement officer with a weapon, which presumably was loaded, and it doesn’t matter if you’re in Minneapolis, Minnesota, or Mississippi, it is a bad idea to approach law enforcement in such a manner,” said Reeves, a long-time supporter of expanded gun rights under the Second Amendment. “So to ensure that we have law and order, the mayor and the governor need to step up and lead.”
In Minnesota, like Mississippi, people have a legal right to carry holstered handguns, whether openly or concealed. At no point do any of the videos of Pretti’s killing show him holding or even reaching for his gun. Pretti had a legal permit to carry a concealed handgun.
Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Cheikh Taylor denounced Pretti’s killing on Saturday.
“What we witnessed in Minneapolis today is an execution, not law enforcement,” Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Cheikh Taylor said in a Jan. 24 statement. “Video evidence shows Alex Pretti backing away with a phone in his hand—not a weapon—before being tackled, disarmed, and then shot multiple times, including at least five shots fired after he collapsed motionless on the pavement. This wasn’t self-defense. This was state-sanctioned violence against an American citizen exercising his constitutional rights.”
Pretti’s marked the second time federal immigration agents had been captured on video killing a person on the streets of Minneapolis this month, following the early January shooting of Renee Good.
‘Alex Pretti Was Killed for Caring’
Despite video evidence, Trump administration officials have repeatedly lied about Alex Pretti’s killing and portrayed the ICU nurse as a terrorist. Border Patrol senior official Greg Bovino baselessly claimed that the man who died attempting to aid two women intended to “massacre law enforcement.” Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called Pretti “a would-be assassin” and a “domestic terrorist” in a social media post. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also described Pretti as a domestic terrorist who wanted to “perpetuate violence” for “ideological reasons.”
The Associated Press, CBS News, The New York Times, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal and other news organizations have all concluded that the video evidence contradicts the Trump administration’s claims. In an unusually blunt rebuke, The New York Times Editorial Board wrote that Trump officials “are lying in the manner of authoritarian regimes that require people to accept lies as a demonstration of power.”
In his statement Saturday, Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Cheikh Taylor said that Gov. Tate Reeves’ “willingness to amplify these lies rather than demand the truth makes him complicit in this cover-up.”
Other party leaders also lambasted Gov. Tate Reeves on Saturday for his remarks about Pretti’s killing.
“While an American nurse lay dead in the street—shot by his own government while exercising his constitutional rights—Governor Tate Reeves went on Fox News to attack the people demanding accountability,” Mississippi Democratic Party Vice Chair Jodie Brown said in the statement. “Instead of calling for justice for Alex Pretti, instead of demanding answers about why federal agents executed a lawful gun owner, our governor chose to parrot White House talking points and demonize Americans exercising their First Amendment rights.”
Mississippi Democratic Party Executive Director Mikel Bolden criticized what he called Reeves’ “hypocrisy” on gun rights.
“Where is Governor Reeves’ defense of a legal gun owner’s rights?” Bolden asked. “Their silence is deafening because Alex Pretti doesn’t fit their narrative. He was a nurse who cared for veterans. He was a protester concerned about his community. And for that, he was killed by his own government while politicians like Tate Reeves cheer from the sidelines.”
Brown said that “Alex Pretti was killed for caring.”
“He was killed for believing that American values matter. He was killed for exercising his First Amendment right to peacefully protest,” Brown continued. “And then his memory was desecrated by politicians who lied about how he died before his body was even cold. Meanwhile, our own governor went on national television to attack those demanding justice rather than standing up for the rights of American citizens. We will not stand for it. Mississippi will not be silent in the face of this tyranny.”
In his remarks on Fox News, Reeves said that “there needs to be an investigation … so that we can get facts as to exactly what happened and why the weapon was discharged,” but suggested protesters on the scene that day made it hard to investigate. He also expressed dismay over the imagery protesters have used in Minneapolis.
“To watch this scene with individuals flying American flags upside down, it’s really hard to watch,” the Mississippi governor said, expressing dismay over Minneapolis protesters’ symbolic choices even hours after footage of Alex Pretti’s killing began circulating.
In a Facebook post sharing a video of the interview, Reeves described the protesters as “mobs of anarchists and radicals who are terrorizing American cities need to go home, whether that’s just back to their mother’s basements or back to Mogadishu,” referring to Somali immigrants who have become a target of the White House. President Donald Trump has engaged in racist attacks against Somali immigrants himself, calling them “garbage.”
The Mississippi governor also referenced the winter storm that Mississippi and much of the nation faced over the weekend.
“Stay safe and warm Mississippi… And let’s be grateful it’s just sleet and snow – and not Antifa – closing our streets,” he wrote.
Thompson: Don’t Fund DHS, Impeach Noem
U.S. House Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat and the ranking member on the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, castigated the Trump administration for its handling of Pretti’s killing, calling it “un-American.”
“Yet another U.S. citizen has been killed in cold blood by ICE and CBP in Minneapolis for exercising his First Amendment rights,” the congressman said on Saturday. “This is sick and should shock all Americans. It is also more of the purposeful chaos and violence that Trump and Kristi Noem welcome and are responsible for. Trump and Noem have blood on their hands.”
“Then, within minutes—just like with Renee Good—DHS and its mass propaganda machine slandered and attacked the deceased individual with no evidence and spun its own fantasy narrative as fact,” he continued. “Apparently, the Trump administration and its secret police only support the First and Second Amendment when it’s convenient for them.”
Thompson, who voted last week against funding the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, including both U.S. Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, called for ICE and CBP to “leave Minneapolis at once.”
“DHS must release the body camera footage now. Do-nothing Republicans in Congress must force ICE and CBP leaders to testify publicly,” he said. “The Senate must vote against funding CBP and ICE. The House must immediately take steps to impeach Kristi Noem.”
‘He Cared About People Deeply’
As Minneapolis mourned the intensive care nurse killed by Border Patrol officers in a hail of gunfire, those who knew Alex Pretti came forward Sunday to dispute the narrative of top Trump administration officials that he was a violent “domestic terrorist” and would-be assassin.
Pretti, 37, was remembered as kind and warm-hearted by his family, neighbors and the loved ones of the ailing veterans he treated at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center.
A video posted to social media showed Pretti reading a final salute at the foot of the flag-draped body of Terrance Lee Randolph, an Air Force vet who died at the hospital in 2024.
“Today we remember that freedom is not free,” Pretti, wearing navy blue scrubs, says in the video. “We have to work for it, nurture it, protect it, and even sacrifice for it.”
Randolph’s son, Mac Randolph, remembered Pretti tending to his father in his final days and said he found the words “very on point” in the wake of Saturday’s deadly shooting.
“He was extremely knowledgeable and caring,” Mac Randolph said. “He was able to answer any questions we had and would really hear out our concerns. He treated my father and our family with the utmost dignity and respect. He was truly one of the best of us.”
Family members say Pretti was deeply empathic of those he saw as being mistreated and was upset by President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in his city. He had participated in protests following the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs officer.
Pretti was also an avid outdoorsman who enjoyed getting in adventures with Joule, his beloved Catahoula Leopard dog who recently died.
“He cared about people deeply and he was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the United States with ICE, as millions of other people are upset,” Michael Pretti told The Associated Press on Saturday shortly after his son’s death. “He thought it was terrible, you know, kidnapping children, just grabbing people off the street. He cared about those people, and he knew it was wrong, so he did participate in protests.”
Pretti was a U.S. citizen, born in Illinois. Like Good, court records show he had no criminal record, and his family said he had never had any interactions with law enforcement beyond a handful of traffic tickets.
In a recent conversation with their son, his parents, who live in Colorado, told him to be careful when protesting.
“We had this discussion with him two weeks ago or so, you know, that go ahead and protest, but do not engage, do not do anything stupid, basically,” Michael Pretti said. “And he said he knows that. He knew that.”
Alex Pretti’s Family Struggles for Information About What Happened
The family first learned of the shooting when they were called by an Associated Press reporter. They watched the video and said the man killed appeared to be their son. They then tried reaching out to officials in Minnesota.
“I can’t get any information from anybody,” Michael Pretti said Saturday. “The police, they said call Border Patrol, Border Patrol’s closed, the hospitals won’t answer any questions.”
Eventually, the parents called the Hennepin County Medical Examiner, who they said confirmed had a body matching the name and description of their son.
As of Saturday evening, the family said they had still not heard from anyone at a federal law enforcement agency about their son’s death.
After seeing videos of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and others suggesting their son was a “domestic terrorist” who attacked the officers who shot him, they issued a written statement describing themselves as both heartbroken and angry.
“The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting,” the family said. They added that videos showed Alex Pretti was not holding a gun when he was tackled by federal agents, but holding his phone with one hand and using the other to shield a woman who was being pepper-sprayed.
“Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man,” they said.
Alex Pretti grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he played football, baseball and ran track for Preble High School. He was a Boy Scout and sang in the Green Bay Boy Choir.
After graduation, he went to the University of Minnesota, graduating in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in biology, society and the environment, according to the family. He worked as a research scientist before returning to school to become a registered nurse.
‘A Wonderful Person’
Pretti’s ex-wife, who spoke to the AP but later said she didn’t want her name used, said she was not surprised he would have been involved in protesting Trump’s immigration crackdown. She said she had not spoken to him since they divorced more than two years ago and she moved to another state.
She said he was a Democratic voter and that he had participated in the wave of street protests following the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, not far from the couple’s neighborhood. She described him a someone who might shout at law enforcement officers at a protest, but she had never known him to be physically confrontational.
She said Pretti got a permit to carry a concealed firearm about three years ago and that he owned at least one semiautomatic handgun when they separated.
Pretti lived in a four-unit condominium building about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from where he was shot. Neighbors described him as quiet and warmhearted.
“He’s a wonderful person,” said Sue Gitar, who lived downstairs from Pretti and said he moved into the building about three years ago. “He has a great heart.”
If there was something suspicious going on in the neighborhood, or when they worried the building might have a gas leak, he would jump in to help.
Pretti lived alone and worked long hours as a nurse, but he was not a loner, his neighbors said, and would sometimes have friends over.
His neighbors knew he had guns — he’d occasionally take a rifle to shoot at a gun range — but were surprised at the idea that he might carry a pistol on the streets.
“I never thought of him as a person who carried a gun,” said Gitar.
As a light dusting of snow fell over Minneapolis Sunday morning, community members lit candles, lay fresh flowers and stood somberly around a makeshift vigil at the site of Pretti’s death. Pine cones were assembled to read, “Long live Alex Pretti.” Some bouquets had a layer of frost from being out all night. A few Minneapolis police cars stood nearby.
Pretti Was Passionate About the Outdoors
A competitive bicycle racer who lavished care on his new Audi, Pretti had also been deeply attached to his dog, who died about a year ago.
His parents said their last conversation with their son was a couple days before his death. They talked about repairs he had done to the garage door of his home. The worker was a Latino man, and they said with all that was happening in Minneapolis he gave the man a $100 tip.
Pretti’s mother said her son cared immensely about the direction the country was headed, especially the Trump administration’s rollback of environmental regulations.
“He hated that, you know, people were just trashing the land,” Susan Pretti said. “He was an outdoorsman. He took his dog everywhere he went. You know, he loved this country, but he hated what people were doing to it.”
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Mississippi Free Press News Editor Ashton Pittman reported the sections of this story on the responses from Mississippi leaders. Biesecker reported from Washington and Mustian from New York on Pretti’s life and the responses from his family, friends and colleagues. Associated Press reporter Tim Sullivan contributed from Minneapolis.