CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Dozens gathered Wednesday evening at the Veterans Affairs North Battlefield Outpatient Clinic in Chesapeake to honor the memory of Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old VA intensive care nurse who was fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis Saturday morning, and to demand greater accountability in federal immigration enforcement operations.
Pretti was killed Jan. 24 in the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis during heightened federal law enforcement activity, part of a surge of Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in the city.
Video and witness accounts show Pretti holding a phone and raising his hands moments before agents fired multiple shots that struck and killed him, contradicting early federal statements that he posed a violent threat.
“I am so sorry their face is on here,” said one attendee, gesturing toward a memorial display on Wednesday.
The shooting, the second involving federal immigration agents in Minneapolis within three weeks, has ignited vigils and protests across the country and intensified scrutiny of how federal agents use force.
Less than three weeks before Pretti’s death, an ICE agent shot and killed Renée Nicole Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis woman, in a separate incident that also drew widespread criticism and conflicting narratives about what occurred.
At the Chesapeake vigil, speakers and participants described what is happening in Minnesota as a wake-up call and a symbol of a troubling pattern.
“It just makes me cry,” an attendee said. “I just think we need to wake up, we need people to wake and pay attention to what’s going on in our country. It’s really sad.”
Federal authorities have placed the agents involved in Pretti’s shooting on administrative leave while the Department of Homeland Security and FBI continue investigations.
National advocacy groups and local officials have called for transparency and independent oversight of the incidents.
The deaths of Pretti and Good have also fed larger protests and demonstrations nationwide, with demonstrators demanding changes to federal enforcement policies and greater protections for civilians confronting immigration operations.
With investigations ongoing, supporters at Wednesday’s vigil said they hope the Chesapeake gathering will amplify calls for meaningful reform.
