A doctor who said they tried to attend to protester Alex Pretti after he was shot in Minneapolis has said that federal agents were not attempting to give the 37-year-old medical assistance and were instead counting the bullet holes in his body.
“As I approached, I saw that the victim was lying on his side and was surrounded by several ICE agents. I was confused as to why the victim was on his side, because that is not standard practice when a victim has been shot,” the unnamed doctor wrote in a declaration added to a lawsuit challenging ICE’s use of force in Minnesota.
“Checking for a pulse and administering CPR is standard practice. Instead of doing either of those things, the ICE agents appeared to be counting his bullet wounds. I asked the ICE agents if the victim had a pulse, and they said they did not know.”
The individual, who has lived in Minneapolis since 2024 for a pediatric medical residency, said Pretti had “at least three bullet wounds in his back” and they found more in his upper chest and neck when he was turned over.
“I checked for a pulse, but I did not feel one. I immediately began CPR. Shortly after I started compressions, EMS personnel arrived and took over,” the person said, adding that the scene had been “chaotic.”
Video of the incident showed Pretti attempting to help a female protester and filming federal agents before being thrown to the ground and then beaten before a gun shot is heard, followed by at least nine more.
In the declaration the doctor said they witnessed the incident and that from what they had seen there was “absolutely no need for violence.”
They also described how the agents on the scene initially would not let them through to attend to Pretti, repeatedly asking for a physician’s license and eventually patting them down to “make sure I didn’t have a weapon.”
“None of the ICE agents who were near the victim were performing CPR, and I could tell that the victim was in critical condition,” the declaration said. “I insisted that the agents let me assess him. Normally, I would not have been so persistent, but as a physician, I felt a professional and moral obligation to help this man, especially since none of the agents were helping him.”
Pretti was himself an ICU nurse, who had obtained a nursing license in 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, going on to work for the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, which provides services, including healthcare, to U.S. military veterans.
“He cared about people deeply and he was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the United States with ICE, as millions of other people are upset,” Michael Pretti, Alex’s father, told the Associated Press. “He felt that doing the protesting was a way to express that, you know, his care for others.”
The doctor said that when they returned home they were “extremely distraught” and “sobbing and shaking uncontrollably.” While initially planning to stay at home, the doctor decided to leave after tear gas was deployed outside and began to drift into their home, at which point they decided to go and stay with a relative.
The doctor wrote: “I am devastated by the killing of a Minnesotan by multiple federal immigration agents. From what I could tell, the victim was not actively threatening ICE agents or the public – he was just yelling at the agents because he objected to ICE’s presence in our city. A person should not be shot and killed for lawfully expressing their opinions.
“I am not sure when I will return to my apartment. I do not feel safe in my city. In less than one month, ICE agents have shot and killed two people for protesting and observing their actions. I worry that I or someone I love will be shot and killed for voicing their displeasure and being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
The Independent has asked the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
