Was Alex Pretti fired from his nursing job?
Executive summary
Multiple reputable news outlets and nursing organizations report that the social-media claim Alex Pretti had been fired from his nursing job is false; contemporaneous reporting describes him as an active ICU nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Health Care System with an active license and colleagues who remember him as dedicated [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. What the viral claim said and where it spread
In the hours after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis, social-media posts circulated asserting that Pretti had been terminated from his VA nursing position, framing that allegation as a purported justification or context for the encounter; fact-checking outlets flagged those posts as circulating misinformation [1] [2].
2. What contemporaneous reporting establishes about Pretti’s employment
Multiple news organizations reporting on Pretti’s death describe him as an intensive-care unit nurse at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, note that he obtained a registered-nurse license in 2021 which remained active into 2026, and quote coworkers and mentors who say he worked at the VA and cared for critically ill veterans — details inconsistent with a recent firing [3] [4] [5].
3. Professional and union reactions that rebut the firing narrative
Major nursing groups and unions promptly framed Pretti as a colleague and member of the nursing community calling for accountability in his death; the American Nurses Association and the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses urged full investigations and emphasized his role as a nurse, while the American Federation of Government Employees protested what it called concerted efforts to smear Pretti — language that treats the “fired” claim as part of a broader disinformation campaign rather than a documented personnel fact [6] [7] [8].
4. Eyewitness, colleague, and public-record evidence cited by reporters
Reporters relied on interviews with mentors, doctors who worked with Pretti, family members, and public-license records to establish his professional status: colleagues described him as competent and compassionate, a VA ICU nurse who had worked at the hospital for several years, and public records show an active nursing license — evidence journalists use to rebut claims of termination [4] [9] [3].
5. Where reporting is limited and what remains unverified
No source in the provided reporting quotes an explicit, contemporaneous personnel action notice from the VA stating “not fired” nor does any cite a personnel file; instead, outlets rely on interviews, license records, employer descriptions, and union statements to contradict the viral claim. That means reporting effectively rebuts the firing allegation through multiple independent indicators but does not reproduce an internal VA HR document in the sources provided here [1] [3] [4].
6. Why the “fired” claim matters and who benefits from it
The allegation that Pretti had been fired would, if true, be used to shift public focus from law-enforcement use of force to personal conduct, which benefits actors seeking to delegitimize protests and public scrutiny; unions and nursing organizations have explicitly accused political figures and agencies of smearing Pretti, indicating an active political and rhetorical battle over the narrative [8] [7] [6].
7. Bottom line — direct answer to the question
Available reputable reporting and professional statements consistently indicate Alex Pretti was an ICU nurse employed at the Minneapolis VA with an active license and no credible evidence in these reports that he had been fired; thus, based on the cited coverage, the claim that he was fired is false or unsubstantiated in the record reviewed here [1] [2] [3] [4].