Close to 1,000 people — many medical professionals in New York — gathered outside Manhattan’s VA Hospital on Thursday night to honor the life of Alex Pretti, the Minneapolis ICU nurse shot dead by ICE agents last week.
The big crowd outside New York Harbor Health Care on East 23rd Street not only condemned Pretti’s death — one that sparked outrage across the country — but also honored the way Pretti lived. The slain nurse worked at a VA hospital himself, and had come to the aid of a fallen protester moments before he was gunned down.
Pretti was shot dead after ICE agents shoved him to the ground, physically assaulted him, and confiscated a gun in his holster that he never removed from his waistband, in a gruesome assault caught on multiple videos that went viral. The killing occurred 17 days after Renee Good, a mother of three, was fatally shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis amid ongoing protests over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the city.
At Thursday’s vigil honoring Pretti, the crowd was so vast that the sidewalk leading up East 23rd Street and 1st Avenue could not contain them. With candles flicking in their hands they spilled into the snow-covered roadway, some with tears in their eyes.
On the walls surrounding the Veterans Hospital, those gathered crafted a makeshift memorial not just to Pretti and Good, but to others who have died in ICE custody.
In the middle of it all, one by one, speakers honored Pretti for the last actions — attempting to protect a woman from being pepper-sprayed.
“His parents, Susan and Michael Pretti had asked us to tell the world that their son was a hero. Tonight, we honor Alex,” said Angela Preocanin, a member of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU).
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams took to a podium in the center of the tightly packed crowd and condemned those who have defended the slaying of Pretti.
“I’m tired of people across the country continuing to make excuses after excuses and not calling what we saw on video is what we saw,” Williams charged. “This is not accidental. This is the byproduct of a MAGA America. This is the byproduct of this type of leadership from Donald Trump. And I’m thankful that people are now saying they are sorry for not speaking out earlier, but I’m hoping we learn the lesson so no more people have to die.”
During one speech, onlookers suddenly and spontaneously broke out in chants of “ICE out now!” that lasted for several minutes.
Mourners for Pretti swelled to such a size that the NYPD used barricades to surround the crowd to prevent them from spilling further into traffic. In addition to candlelight, many also raised homemade signs dubbing Pretti a hero.
In the moments following the vigil, President Trump wrote a scathing Truth Social post referring to video releases that appear to show the nurse protesting ICE in the days leading up to his death. He labeled Pretti an “agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist.”
Yet others who have viewed the video of Pretti’s killing said ICE agents had no justification to commit what many have called an execution.
“In his last moments, he chose to put himself at the defense of another in our community. That is one of the most honorable things one can do in their life. Alex Pretti should be here today with us. He is not because federal agents chose to unholster his legally owned firearm, remove it from his person and shoot him until he stopped breathing,” said Michael Matos, the founder and president of Five Borough Veterans.
