What do hospital or employer records say about Alex Pretti’s employment status at the time of his death?
Executive summary
Contemporary reporting and multiple fact-checks indicate that hospital and employer records— as represented in reputable news coverage and union statements—identify Alex Pretti as an active registered intensive-care nurse at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System at the time he was killed, and there is no reputable reporting documenting any termination or disciplinary action against him prior to his death [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].
1. What the VA employment picture looks like in the public record
Major outlets consistently describe Pretti as an ICU nurse employed at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center when he died, and his colleagues and the local nurses’ union publicly characterized him as a current VA teammate, a portrayal that has been repeated across investigative reports and profiles [1] [6] [7] [8].
2. Licensing and formal credentials cited by reporters
Public reporting that relied on verifiable documents states Pretti held an active nursing license and became a registered nurse in January 2021, details reporters obtained from state licensing records and that were cited by outlets such as People and Wikipedia entries synthesizing reporting [5] [4].
3. Viral claims of firing and the provenance of those claims
Claims circulating after the shooting that Pretti had been fired for misconduct trace to a fabricated report on a fringe website (buzzreport247) and unnamed social posts; multiple fact‑checks and mainstream outlets found no evidence supporting those claims and identified the original item as fabricated [3] [2] [9].
4. Payroll screenshots and unverified records on social platforms
Screenshots purporting to be federal payroll records showing employment dates or changes for Pretti circulated on social media, but news organizations noted those images lacked independent verification and no official agency confirmed them; reporting cautioned that such images alone do not constitute reliable proof of termination or discipline [10] [1].
5. What investigators and officials have (not) said publicly about VA employment status
While DHS and related federal agencies released accounts focused on the shooting itself, reporters noted a relative absence of formal agency statements specifically confirming personnel actions at the VA; instead, confirmation of Pretti’s active role at the Minneapolis VA comes through his employer’s colleagues, union comments, and investigators’ and reporters’ checks of licensing records, as amplified in mainstream coverage [1] [4] [8].
6. Where the record is clear and where reporting stops
The clear consensus across reputable outlets and fact-checkers is that Pretti was a registered ICU nurse employed at the Minneapolis VA at the time of his death and that there is no credible public evidence of prior firing or documented discipline; however, public reporting also shows the limits of available records—investigative teams and media have relied on licensing data, employer statements and union comments rather than an explicit, formal VA personnel release listing employment status or disciplinary history—so absolute certainty about sealed internal personnel files cannot be claimed from the publicly available sources [1] [2] [3] [4] [9].