Utah nurses hold vigil for Minnesota man killed during immigration enforcement protest

SALT LAKE CITY — Hundreds of Utah nurses and others joined together Thursday evening to honor Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse who was shot and killed by Border Patrol officers in Minneapolis while protesting immigration enforcement.

The vigil at the Utah Capitol was organized by the Utah Nurses Association and the Utah Nurses Foundation. People held flameless candles and white roses as they listened to tributes to Pretti and observed a moment of silence.

“We created a space where everyone could come together, to grieve, to move forward, to support and advocate for each other,” said Brittania Doxstader, president of the Utah Nurses Association and one of the vigil’s organizers. “I think that’s exactly what happened tonight.”

This comes less than a week after Pretti was shot multiple times by two federal officers, a Border Patrol agent and a customs officer, after he refused to ‌move out of the street following an order from a customs officer. In video, just before he was killed on Jan. 24, Pretti is shown holding his phone and helping a woman whom officers had pushed down.

New video has also surfaced from 11 days earlier showing Pretti kicking out a tail light of a vehicle belonging to immigration agents and scuffling with officers. In a statement, his family’s attorney said nothing about that previous encounter “could possibly have justified Alex’s killing.”

Pretti, who had a concealed-carry permit, was armed but did not brandish his weapon during either incident, according to witness videos and reporting from the Associated Press.

Multiple lawmakers, including Sen. John Curtis and Rep. Blake Moore, both Republicans from Utah, have called for an independent investigation into the shooting. Curtis in particular criticized the Trump administration’s initial response to the incident, in which officials referred to Pretti as a “domestic terrorist” and an “assassin.”

In the aftermath of Pretti’s killing and the subsequent criticism, President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan has said federal officials are working on a “drawdown plan” in Minnesota, according to NBC News, but urged local leaders to work with the feds to “tone down the dangerous rhetoric and condemn all unlawful action” against law enforcement.

‘He did what nurses do’

During Thursday’s vigil in Utah, speakers largely avoided politics, focusing instead on Pretti’s career as a nurse and what his death means to those in the profession.

“According to reporting from family, Alex participated in demonstrations because he believed profoundly in human dignity and justice, and he grieved what was happening to vulnerable people in his city,” Doxstader said. “In his final moments, when Alex saw someone on the ground needing help, he did what nurses do. He moved toward suffering, not away from it, and he did so without hesitation.”

The vigil in Salt Lake City drew many fellow nurses, some who said they were upset over what happened to Pretti and similar incidents throughout the country. Pretti’s death came just weeks after the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three who was shot and killed by a Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on Jan. 7.