In a heartbreaking show of respect and grief, the staff that Alex Pretti worked with every day honored him as his body was wheeled out
Executive summary
Staff at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital publicly honored Alex Pretti as colleagues gathered and observed moments of silence and tributes when news of his death reached the VA campus, and images and video of those rituals circulated in multiple outlets [1] [2]. Reporting shows coworkers framed those acts as mourning a trusted ICU nurse and veteran caregiver even as national debate swirled over the circumstances of his killing by federal agents [2] [3].
1. The scene inside the VA: a hush and a moment of silence
Colleagues at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System paused to mourn Pretti, with reports and photographs showing VA staff holding a moment of silence and other touching tributes to the ICU nurse in the days after he was shot by federal agents [1] [4]. Unions and coworkers described the moment as formal and heartfelt—AFGE Professional Local 3669 called his death “devastating,” and local reporting captured staff standing together in grief at the hospital [4] [1].
2. How coworkers framed him: a caregiver honored by caregivers
Those who worked with Pretti emphasized his role as an intensive-care nurse who “lived to help,” recalling small daily acts of care that made the VA tributes feel personal rather than symbolic [4] [5]. Former supervisors and colleagues on programs where he worked described him as compassionate and civic-minded, and those memories shaped the way staff honored him—portraying the hospital gestures as recognition of a colleague’s professional and human qualities [6] [5].
3. Rituals and imagery: context from earlier footage
Already-circulating footage of Pretti reading a final salute for a veteran patient in 2024 became part of the narrative after his death, and outlets noted that the hospital custom of escorting a patient’s bed away was mirrored in images that now accompany tributes to him—giving colleagues’ acts extra emotional weight because they echoed Pretti’s own bedside rituals [7] [2]. Reporting highlights that this prior footage reinforced the sense among coworkers that they were honoring someone who habitually tended to the dying and their families [7].
4. The broader debate: grieving coworkers amid contested accounts
While hospital staff and veterans’ advocates focused on memorializing Pretti, national political actors and federal officials pushed competing accounts about the incident that killed him, and those narratives complicated how the mourning was received and portrayed beyond the hospital [8] [9]. Some officials described the shooting as defensive and tied it to allegations about Pretti’s conduct at the scene; family, friends and many coworkers denounced attempts to smear his reputation and insisted on his record of service and care [9] [2].
5. What the reporting establishes — and what it does not
Available reporting clearly documents coworkers’ private and public grieving: moments of silence, vigils, and official union statements at the VA, and the widespread sharing of prior footage of Pretti’s bedside tributes [1] [3] [7]. What the sources do not uniformly establish are the precise facts of the shooting itself or whether actions at the scene justified the use of lethal force; those elements remain contested in official statements and video interpretations and are beyond what the staff tributes alone can resolve [9] [3].
6. Why the VA’s honors matter amid calls for accountability
The gestures by Pretti’s coworkers matter both emotionally and politically: they humanize a colleague whose death intensified protests and demands for transparent investigations while also becoming a touchstone in a polarized debate over federal tactics and public safety [3] [8]. The hospital tributes are documented evidence of community grief and professional regard for Pretti, even as broader questions about the shooting’s circumstances and official narratives continue to drive calls for independent inquiry [2] [8].