‘One of our own’: Employees, patients at Spokane veterans’ hospital honor Alex Pretti, the VA nurse slain in Minneapolis

Employees at Spokane’s veterans’ hospital observed a moment of silence on Monday morning, and some affixed photos of Alex Pretti to their own ID badges in a show of solidarity with the VA nurse shot dead by Customs and Border Protection agents while being restrained in Minneapolis two days earlier.

Link Miles, a registered nurse and president of National Federation of Federal Employees, Local 1641, said he saw and heard a mix of “anger, horror, heartache and some general solemness” from his colleagues at Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center on Monday. He hoped that national VA leaders would send a message to Department of Veterans Affairs’ employees after one of their colleagues was killed in such a high-profile incident, but as of Monday afternoon they hadn’t received one, he said.

“Over my years in the VA, respectful expression of respect and basic human concern has occurred over losses of lives of employees or even family of employees,” Miles wrote in a text message. “As a unionist and VA employee for many years, I have recognized that lack of response is generally viewed as agreement. It is difficult to take the silence regarding the atrocity of government employees on a government employee, one of our own, as anything else.”

In a post on X on Sunday, VA Secretary Doug Collins confirmed that Pretti was a nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center and echoed the rhetoric from the rest of the Trump administration, which has claimed without evidence that Pretti was a “terrorist” bent on killing federal immigration enforcement agents.

“As President Trump has said, nobody wants to see chaos and death in American cities, and we send our condolences to the Pretti family,” Collins said. “Such tragedies are unfortunately happening in Minnesota because of state and local officials’ refusal to cooperate with the federal government to enforce the law and deport dangerous illegal criminals.”

Pretti was licensed to carry a concealed firearm, according to Minnesota officials, and the Department of Homeland Security posted a photo of a 9mm handgun on X soon after he was killed, claiming without evidence that he “wanted to do maximum damage.” Video of the incident shows Pretti recording video of CBP agents with his phone before multiple agents restrain him, face down.

Contrary to claims by the Trump administration, videos recorded from multiple angles appear to show that Pretti never drew or reached for his gun, and the agents didn’t appear to notice that he was carrying a gun until he was restrained.

Seconds later, agents fired 10 rounds into his back.

Miles said he and several other VA employees plan to join a march of health care workers and their allies from Riverfront Park to the Spokane County Courthouse on Wednesday evening. Organizers say they are “united in grief, solidarity and a demand for accountability” for Pretti’s killing.

“He was a nurse at the VA, our fellow employee,” Miles said in an interview later on Monday, adding that VA employees and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents all work for the same federal government.

“While they’re different agencies, we have one leadership – and this is what has been promoted by our leadership,” he said, Pretti’s picture now affixed to the employee ID lanyard dangling from his neck. “We’re a health care organization. We’re here to take care of patients, to take care of veterans who have paid costs for taking care of our country.”

Miles said “a small but growing number” of his colleagues have also added Pretti’s picture to their ID badges in a show of solidarity with the slain nurse.

The information that’s come out about Pretti so far, Miles said, suggests that the 37-year-old Minneapolis man was “a caring person that was not just a nurse but also was interested in caring for people and doing good to people.”

A medical staff member at the VA outside Monday said she walked into work and immediately looked up Pretti’s name on Microsoft Teams. It said he was last active on Thursday, two days before he was killed.

“There is a heaviness in the building. We talk about it, but in hushed tones, ” she said. “Finding out he was one of our own is devastating.”

On Monday, Jim Leighty, a local veteran and Spokane activist, placed two yellow flowers at the front of Mann-Grandstaff with a sign that read, “VA ICU Nurse Alex Pretti, hero.”

By the late afternoon, it was gone.

“I felt like I needed to do something,” Leighty said. “I use the VA, and I know every person that works there is amazing, loving and caring. To see one of their members killed in this way is horrible.”

Leighty served as a crew chief in the U.S. Army and now relies on the VA for medical care because he has a disability. He said he has grown to know the medical staff that cares for him and finds it hard to imagine how he would react if it was one of them was killed by a federal agent during a protest.

“The people at the VA in Spokane, this might hit them hard because being a nurse is such a hard thing to do. They give so much to others, and we need to give back to them,” Leighty said. “If we show we support Alex in Spokane and no one notices, that’s OK, but we are sending a message that we care.”