Green Bay community mourns the death of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis

The Green Bay community is mourning the death of Alex Pretti, who was killed by federal agents in Minneapolis over the weekend.

Pretti was born in Illinois but grew up in Green Bay, according to the Associated Press. He graduated from Preble High School in 2006. In school, he played sports and sang in the choir.

As news spread of Pretti’s death, people stopped at his old high school to pay tribute. They left flowers, handwritten notes, a stethoscope and a guitar. One person left a small trophy marked with the word “hero.”

Around 1,500 to 2,000 people attended an anti-ICE protest in Green Bay on Sunday, the day after Pretti was killed, according to informal estimates from the Green Bay Police Department and a protest organizer. 

Pretti, 37, was shot dead Saturday by federal agents. Widely circulated video showed Pretti using a phone to record federal immigration agents on a Minnesota street.

According to a New York Times analysis, agents used pepper spray and then took Pretti to the ground after he appeared to try to help two women. He was shot multiple times while pinned to the ground after, it appears, an agent disarmed him. Pretti was a licensed gun owner.

Members of the Trump administration have tried to paint Pretti as a domestic terrorist, initially claiming he approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a handgun and they tried to disarm him.

In a statement, Pretti’s parents said the “sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting,” saying he was holding a cell phone — not a gun — when he was attacked by federal agents.

“Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital,” the statement read. “Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately he will not be with us to see his impact.”

Green Bay-area residents who knew him say Pretti was a caring person who tried to help others

Two people who knew him in Green Bay described Pretti as someone who cared about others and never hesitated to lift a helping hand.

Ashwaubenon resident Susan Carlson was one of Pretti’s middle school teachers at a now-defunct Catholic school.

Carlson said Pretti had an “infectious personality,” describing him as a polite, funny and smart student. She also said he was the first to raise his hand to volunteer to help, even when he didn’t know what he was volunteering for.

“He’s the kid who would offer to help somebody re-explain a lesson to a student who didn’t understand something when they had a study hall,” Carlson said. “He’s the kind of kid who would see me carrying something heavy, and he’d offer to help carry it or run to the door ahead of me to open it up for me.”

Green Bay resident Travis Vanden Heuvel was friends with Pretti when they were both in elementary and middle school. He said the two became friends through the Green Bay Boy Choir. 

He said they spent a lot of time together rehearsing and at a summer camp at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. He also said they took an annual trip to Chicago through the choir. When Vanden Heuvel thinks about Pretti, he says he remembers “his smile and kind personality.”

“He was someone who, even at a young age, would ask, ‘How are you doing? Tell me what’s happening’ — just those check-in questions that we kind of take for granted in our friendships later in life,” Vanden Heuvel said. “He was someone who was a performer. He was someone who had an energy and a spirit about him that people gravitated towards.”

Carlson and Vanden Heuvel both said they’re angry with how the administration has characterized Pretti. 

“It is a double death,” Carlson said. “They assassinate someone, and then they assassinate their character, and it’s utterly disgusting. I cannot believe that this is what our government has become.”

Green Bay organizer says community rallied the day after Pretti’s death

Green Bay resident Kejuan Goldsmith, a member of the Green Bay Anti-War Committee, helped organize the anti-ICE protest on Sunday. 

He said the protest was organized in under 48 hours and saw Green Bay’s CityDeck boardwalk filled with people who were “angry” and “tired of rights being violated.”

“There were more people at the boardwalk than I’ve ever seen, and I’ve led protests in Green Bay for years,” he said. “I’ve never seen that many people on the boardwalk.”

Goldsmith also said he believes that Pretti growing up in Green Bay played a role in the large attendance.

“Green Bay is a community of people that love to help one another and to unite,” he said. “I’ve seen that over and over, when there’s tragedy here, that we are family.”

Green Bay leaders react to Alex Pretti’s death

Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich said in a statement that Pretti’s death was the result of the federal government’s “occupation of an American city,” and called for a “full, transparent and independent investigation” into his death.

“I mourn his tragic death with his friends and family, and join the chorus of Americans who are rightfully demanding the federal government change course and enforce immigration law in keeping with local, state, and federal laws and the U.S. Constitution,” Genrich stated. 

Green Bay Area Public School District Superintendent Vicki Bayer told WPR she heard from students over the weekend who were frustrated and trying to figure out how something like this could happen.

She said staff are meeting with students, listening and trying to be as supportive as they can to try to help them make sense of something that’s difficult to make sense of.

As a district, Bayer says there is nothing formally planned to remember Pretti.

“The community is really taking the lead, and I know our students are talking about some show of action, but not sure what that is yet,” Bayer said. “We did send a message to our staff, just letting them know that this brings about a lot of emotions, and everybody will be impacted differently by it, and we’re here to help.”

In a statement after Pretti’s death, state Rep. Amaad Rivera-Wagner, D-Green Bay, said his “heart is broken” that another life was taken by federal agents in Minnesota. He also said Pretti “should be alive today” and called for accountability.

“It is not surprising that Alex was a nurse with roots in Green Bay, a place where we believe in taking care of each other and respecting human dignity,” Rivera-Wagner stated. “I grieve for his family, for Minneapolis, and for a country where constitutional values are ignored and communities are torn apart for the political gain of a few.”