Had Alex Pretti been fired from his job at the hospital?
Executive summary
The claim that Alex Pretti was fired from his job at the hospital is false: multiple fact‑checks and reputable reporting show he was an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital at the time of his death and that viral reports of termination or resignation are based on fabricated or spam sources [1] [2] [3]. Nevertheless, social posts and several low‑credibility sites circulated narratives that he had quit or been dismissed, narratives that mainstream outlets and fact‑checkers have debunked [4] [5].
1. The core fact: Pretti worked in the Minneapolis VA ICU, not "fired" from it
Contemporaneous reporting and the family’s statement identify Alex Pretti as an intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital, and outlets covering the shooting quote family members and patients who described his service to veterans, undermining the idea that he had been dismissed from that role [3] [6] [1].
2. Where the firing story came from — and why it fails scrutiny
The allegation that Pretti had been fired originated in fabricated articles and spam websites that invented sources—citing a supposed Dr. Elena Vasquez and a fictitious Lakeshore Medical Center—and that claim propagated on social platforms before fact‑checkers traced it to a disreputable clickbait network, often linked to spam factories using AI tools, which means the story lacks verifiable primary sourcing [2] [4] [5].
3. What multiple fact‑checks and mainstream outlets conclude
Independent fact‑checking outlets and mainstream news organizations uniformly report no evidence that Pretti was terminated, noting instead that he obtained his nursing license in 2021, worked in the VA ICU, and had supporters including colleagues and patients; those fact‑checks explicitly mark the firing claims as false or unsubstantiated [1] [2] [7] [3].
4. The competing narratives and why they spread
After the high‑profile shooting, social and partisan actors amplified alternative narratives—claims that Pretti quit months earlier, displayed “unusual behavior,” or was fired for misconduct—which were traced back to low‑credibility outlets and unverified social posts; family statements and union advocacy groups condemned attempts to smear him, and organizations like AFGE pushed back against what they called targeted smears of a slain union member [4] [5] [8].
5. What remains uncertain and what reputable reporting does not claim
Reporting reviewed here does not find any verifiable personnel records or credible statements from hospital administration confirming any firing or resignation, and fact‑checkers caution that creators of the firing story relied on fabricated interviews and anonymous “former employee” quotes; therefore, the absence of proof plus direct family and local reporting that he worked at the VA form the evidentiary basis for concluding the firing claim is false [2] [4] [5].
6. The journalistic judgment
Given consistent debunking by multiple outlets, the provenance of the rumor in spam/AI‑generated clickbait, and the contemporaneous identification of Pretti as an active VA ICU nurse by family, local reporting and national outlets, the responsible conclusion is that Alex Pretti was not fired from his hospital job—claims that he was are false or unsubstantiated and should be treated as misinformation [1] [2] [3].