Portrait of Minneapolis victim | Alex Pretti wanted to do good

The man shot and killed by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis was Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a U.S. citizen with no criminal record, authorities said.

According to interviews and public documents, Mr. Pretti, 37, was a registered nurse and worked in the intensive care unit of the Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital in Minneapolis. He lived in an apartment a short drive from where he was killed.

Mr. Pretti had a gun license, which is required in the state of Minnesota to carry a handgun, authorities said.

Mr. Pretti’s colleagues and acquaintances were stunned by his death, remembering him as a friendly neighbor and a hardworking professional who devoted himself to his patients.

The D^r Dimitri Drekonja worked with him for years. Mr. Pretti was knowledgeable, efficient and friendly, he said — the kind of person who cared deeply about his work and his patients.

The two men regularly discussed mountain biking, one of Mr. Pretti’s passions.

Michael Pretti, the victim’s father, told the Associated Press that he warned his son to be careful in Minneapolis.

“We had this discussion with him about two weeks ago, you know, to tell him to go protest, but not to get involved, not to do anything stupid, basically,” Michael Pretti said. And he said he knew it. He knew it. »

“Kind, friendly, harmless and peaceful”

Alex Pretti graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2011, according to a university spokesperson. He graduated from high school in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 2006, and was named to the honor roll of a local newspaper. His parents now live in Colorado and his ex-wife lives in California.

A neighbor, Jeanne Wiener, said she thought Mr. Pretti lived alone with his dog, but that she often saw him walking and spoke to him several times a week.

From home, M^me Wiener said she was shocked to learn of his death.

“We talked over the fence all the time,” she said. He was the kindest, kindest, most harmless, peaceful person you could ever meet. »

Ruth Anway, who worked with Mr Pretti, described him as a passionate colleague and friend with a big heart and a keen sense of humour.

M^me Anway, a nurse, first met Mr. Pretti around 2014, when he was a research assistant at the hospital. She said she encouraged him to go into nursing.

“He really thrived in that environment,” she said Saturday in a telephone interview. He wanted to be useful, to help humanity, and to have a career that was a force for good in the world. »

In his free time, she added, Mr. Pretti enjoyed biking the trails around Minneapolis and spending time with his dog, Joule.

M^me Anway added that Mr. Pretti closely follows current affairs and cares deeply about social justice and the fight for equity.

“I’m not surprised that he attended the protest and observed the situation,” she said.

“Absurd and unfair”

Aasma Shaukat, a doctor at the Veterans Affairs hospital who worked with Mr. Pretti, said she hired him for her first job in the hospital’s research department.

Just out of university and in his twenties, Mr. Pretti came to see her without any medical training, but with great motivation, she said.

Mr. Pretti spent the next few years working for the D^D Shaukat, attending medical studies and recruiting patients, while delivering pizzas in the evenings to make ends meet.

The last time they spoke, Mr. Pretti was working overtime as a nurse to save money to buy a house and a new car.

“He was happy, and I was happy for him, because his life was just beginning. This all seems so absurd and unfair. »

This article was first published in the New York Times.

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