Was Alex Pretti a Veteran? Firearm, DHS Label, and Investigations

Alex Pretti was not a veteran. He never served in any branch of the U.S. military. The reason his name is often linked to the Department of Veterans Affairs is that he worked as a civilian intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, caring for veterans for more than a decade before federal Border Patrol agents fatally shot him on January 24, 2026, during immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis.¹

Who Alex Pretti Was

Alex Jeffrey Pretti was born in Park Ridge, Illinois, and grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He attended Preble High School, where he played football, baseball, and ran track, and was a Boy Scout and member of the Green Bay Boy Choir.¹ He graduated from Preble in 2006 and earned a bachelor’s degree in biology, society, and the environment from the University of Minnesota in 2011.²

From college, Pretti went directly into civilian work. He started at the Minneapolis VA as a research assistant and later moved into nursing after his mentor, Dr. Aasma Shaukat, wrote his recommendation for nursing school.³ He was 37 when he was killed, and had spent 11 years at the VA hospital, the last three as a registered nurse in the ICU.⁴ Neighbors described him as quiet and warmhearted. He lived alone in Minneapolis and was an avid mountain biker.¹

So the VA link is straightforward: Pretti was one of the hospital’s nurses, not one of its patients. The confusion likely comes from the fact that the Minneapolis VA Medical Center exists to serve veterans, and much of the coverage after his death focused on the VA community’s grief. Colleagues held a memorial service in the hospital chapel on February 3, 2026, and VA staff at facilities across the country held vigils.⁵⁶

Why His Name Is Attached to a Federal Shooting

In January 2026, the Trump administration deployed roughly 3,000 federal immigration agents to the Minneapolis area under an operation called “Operation Metro Surge,” drawing personnel from ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and the Border Patrol into neighborhood-level enforcement far from any border.⁷⁸⁹

Pretti had been to at least one protest of the operation before he died. About eleven days earlier, on January 13, he kicked the taillight of a Ford Expedition used by federal agents at a Minneapolis protest. Five agents tackled him and deployed tear gas on the crowd. He left with a broken rib but no charges.¹⁰¹¹

On the morning of January 24, Pretti was on a sidewalk near 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue, recording federal agents on his phone and helping to direct traffic. CNN’s analysis of nine bystander videos shows he was not acting violently and was not seen holding the handgun agents later recovered from his waistband.¹²

About three minutes before the shooting, an officer pushed Pretti and told him to move out of the street. Pretti replied that he was out of traffic. When the same officer pushed a female bystander to the ground, Pretti stepped between them. The officer sprayed him with a chemical irritant and pulled him to his knees, and multiple agents forced him to the ground. An officer then retrieved a firearm from the pile of agents. Roughly a second later, ten shots were fired in under five seconds.¹²¹³

A sworn affidavit from a doctor who treated Pretti at the scene stated he had at least three bullet wounds in his back, one in his upper chest, and a possible neck wound.¹³ The Hennepin County Medical Examiner classified his death as a homicide.¹⁴ The two agents who fired the shots were later identified through government records obtained by ProPublica as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa, 43, and CBP officer Raymundo Gutierrez, 35. Both were placed on leave. CBP had not disclosed their names to Congress or the public.¹⁵

Was He Armed, and Was That Legal?

Pretti was carrying a Sig Sauer 9mm pistol and held a valid Minnesota permit to carry a firearm in public.¹⁶ Rob Doar, president of the Minnesota Gun Owners Law Center, said there was “no evidence whatsoever to show that he even touched his firearm throughout the course of the encounter.”¹⁷ The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus noted that public streets are not off-limits for permit holders and that state law does not prohibit carrying a loaded firearm at a protest.

How the Administration Described Him

Within hours of the shooting, senior officials described Pretti as a violent attacker. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said he had been brandishing a firearm and “wishing to inflict harm” on officers. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino said it looked like “an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called Pretti a “domestic terrorist” and a “would-be assassin.”¹⁸¹⁹

On January 30, President Trump called Pretti an “agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist” on Truth Social and described him as “crazed and out of control.” Those characterizations drew criticism from Republican lawmakers as well as Democrats, and the administration gradually walked back the “domestic terrorist” and “would-be assassin” labels. Trump said he wanted to “de-escalate a little bit” regarding the situation in Minnesota.²⁰ On January 26, the administration removed Bovino from his role as commander of the Minneapolis operation and sent him back to his former post in El Centro, California, where he was expected to retire. Border czar Tom Homan took over.²¹

Where the Investigations Stand

On January 30, 2026, the Department of Justice announced that its Civil Rights Division and the FBI had opened a formal investigation into the shooting.²² The probe was assigned to Brandon Wrobleski, a lawyer from the Civil Rights Division’s employment litigation section, with two local prosecutors from the Minneapolis U.S. Attorney’s office. Career prosecutors from the division’s criminal section, the unit that normally handles excessive-force cases, were excluded, a departure that drew criticism from former DOJ officials.²³ Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche declined to give a timeline or commit to releasing body-camera footage, though DHS confirmed body cameras worn by Border Patrol Tactical Unit agents had captured the incident.²⁴

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz pledged a state investigation, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension opened its own probe, but federal authorities blocked state investigators from accessing evidence and crime scenes. As of late January 2026, the BCA said federal investigators had shared no information with them.²⁵ On the day of the shooting, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office filed an emergency lawsuit, and a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order preventing the destruction of evidence.²⁶ A broader suit followed on March 24, 2026, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C.²⁷

Pretti’s parents, Michael and Susan Pretti, retained attorney Steve Schleicher of Maslon in Minneapolis, who helped prosecute the George Floyd case and has publicly described the shooting as a “murder.” His sister Micayla retained attorney Anthony Cotton in Milwaukee.²⁸

No criminal charges had been filed against Ochoa or Gutierrez as of June 2026.¹³ University of St. Thomas law professor Rachel Moran said federal officials had not shown evidence that the agents were being investigated for criminal conduct.²⁹ Minnesota officials said they had not ruled out bringing state charges once their investigation was complete.²²

1
BBC News. Alex Pretti Biographical Details
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WBAY. Green Bay School Board Holds Moment of Silence for Alex Pretti
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ABC News. Alex Pretti’s Life Starting With a Mentor
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Stars and Stripes. VA Nurse Alex Pretti Remembered for Compassionate Care
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U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The Last Ring
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NPR. VA Staff Feel the Chill of Alex Pretti’s Death
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NPR. Minnesota ICE Surge Ends
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The Guardian. Renee Good Autopsy, ICE Minneapolis
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CNN. ICE Shooting DHS DOJ False Statements
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PBS NewsHour. Unearthed Videos Show Alex Pretti Scuffling With Federal Officers Days Before His Death
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CNN. Alex Pretti Protesters Minneapolis
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CNN. Alex Pretti Shooting Minneapolis Videos Witnesses
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ABC News. Minute-by-Minute Timeline of Fatal Shooting of Alex Pretti
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MPR News. Alex Pretti Shooting
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ProPublica. Alex Pretti Shooting CBP Agents Identified: Jesus Ochoa, Raymundo Gutierrez
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Star Tribune. NRA, Local Gun Rights Advocates Reject Trump Officials Blaming Alex Pretti for Being Armed
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NPR. A Minnesota Gun Safety Expert Weighs In on the Fatal Shooting of Alex Pretti
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CNN. Alex Pretti Shooting Trump Administration Narrative
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BBC News. Trump Administration Characterization of Alex Pretti
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NBC News. Trump Calls Alex Pretti Insurrectionist Agitator
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The Atlantic. Greg Bovino Demoted Minneapolis Border Patrol
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NPR. Alex Pretti Shooting DOJ Civil Rights Investigation
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CBS News. DOJ Civil Rights Division Career Prosecutors Alex Pretti
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NBC News. DHS Says Body Worn Camera Video Fatal Shooting Alex Pretti
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CNN. CBP Pretti Investigation Evidence FBI DHS
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Minnesota Attorney General. DHS Evidence Preservation Lawsuit
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Hennepin County. Hennepin County Lawsuit Against DOJ and DHS
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PBS NewsHour. Family of Alex Pretti Retains Lawyers Who Helped Prosecute the George Floyd Case
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NPR. Alex Pretti Renee Good ICE Shootings Federal Investigations