Online fundraiser for Alex Pretti raises nearly $500,000 day after fatal shooting | Minneapolis
An online fundraiser benefiting Alex Pretti’s family raised nearly $500,000 Sunday morning, a day after federal agents killed the U.S. citizen and nurse in Minneapolis in a shooting that sparked another street protest against Donald Trump’s administration and immigration crackdowns in the city.
“Alex Pretti is an American Hero” as an important indicator of public sentiment offer It quickly surpassed its $20,000 goal on the GoFundMe platform after organizer Keith Edwards launched it on Saturday.
A statement attributed to Edwards said the goal of the campaign was to “support your loved ones.” [Pretti] He is left behind with urgent needs after being “executed on the streets of Minneapolis.” Another statement from Edwards stated that he contacted Pretti’s family starting Saturday and worked with GoFundMe to make these relatives beneficiaries of the campaign.
While donations came from approximately 13,200 users, Edwards also wrote, “Thank you all so much for your support.”
GoFundMe did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday.
Pretti, 37, was a registered nurse who worked in the intensive care unit of the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, which serves veterans.
Videos circulating online Saturday showed Pretti directing traffic and filming federal immigration agents arriving in Minneapolis at the orders of the Trump White House.
In one of the videos, Pretti was holding his phone in his right hand, with his left hand empty. Other videos show him coming to the defense of a legal observer who was pushed to the ground by a federal officer. The police officer then sprays Pretti with chemicals repeatedly and then throws him out onto the street with other agents.
When the officers tackled him to the ground and shot him, one of them reached around Pretti’s waist and walked away with what appeared to be a gun. In the video, one of the agents can be seen shouting: “Gun! Gun!”
Another officer pulled out his gun and apparently shot Pretti once at close range. According to video evidence, a second officer pointed a gun at Pretti and he and his colleagues stepped back and 10 more shots were fired.
Pretti was legally allowed to carry a gun, and none of the video evidence taken from multiple angles depicted him brandishing the gun.
In a statement to the Minneapolis news outlet Square 11Pretti’s parents described themselves as “heartbroken but also very angry.” They rejected what Trump administration officials called “sickening lies” after U.S. homeland security secretary Kristi Noem raised the patently false accusation on Saturday that Pretti was shot and killed while pointing a gun as he approached federal officers.
Noem also accused Pretti of intending to “kill law enforcement,” prompting his parents to say in their statement: “Alex was clearly not holding a gun when he was subjected to Trump’s murder and cowardly attack.” [immigration] bandits.
“Please find out the truth about our son. He was a good man.”
Pretti’s killing came 17 days after American citizen Renee Nicole Good, also 37, was shot and killed by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis. In the video, he can be seen trying to get away from her. A GoFundMe campaign aimed at financially supporting Good’s family raised more than $1.5 million before organizers shut it down two days after he was shot and killed.
Street protests followed the killings of both Good and Pretti and widespread calls to hold the officers at the center of the cases accountable.
