‘He was always the one to help’: A Wisconsin childhood friend remembers Alex Pretti 

Alex Pretti has been dominating headlines as the ICU nurse who was killed in Minneapolis last weekend by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.

In the immediate aftermath, administration officials said Pretti intended to kill agents — an account later walked back amid widespread outrage. Multiple videos appear to show Pretti holding a cellphone pointed toward officers and stepping in to help a woman before agents wrestled Pretti to the ground and fatally shot him.

“That’s just who Alex was,” said Travis Vanden Heuvel, who knew Pretti as a child through the Green Bay Boys Choir. “He was always the one to raise his hand and say, ‘I’ll help.’”

Vanden Heuvel sang alongside Pretti in the Boys Choir in the 1990s. He said the qualities that have drawn national attention in the wake of Pretti’s death were evident decades earlier.

Heuvel spoke with WPR’s Robin Washington on “Morning Edition” about his memories of Pretti.

The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Robin Washington: When did you first meet?

Travis Vanden Heuvel: Alex and I first got to meet when we were probably 10 or 11 years old. We were part of a city-wide choir program called the Green Bay Boy Choir. I was a student from the west side of town and Alex was a student from the east side of town. And he and I became friends.

There weren’t a lot of opportunities for young men to participate in the arts outside of band and choir and music programs within our schools.

RW: What was your first impression of him?

TVH: One of the first things that comes to mind is the first thing that comes to mind for a lot of people, and that’s his smile. He just had a real infectious smile, and a personality that was exuding kindness and warmth. And he was always someone who was attentive to the people around him. If someone was sitting alone at lunch at camp in the summertime, he’d be one of the first kids to pull up a chair.

RW: When was the last time you saw him?

TVH: It would probably have been in high school, just bumping into each other in town. I went to a rival high school across the river, Green Bay Southwest. Alex went to a public school on the east side of town, Green Bay Preble. And so we’d have occasions that we would run into each other.

To be honest, it’s been more than a decade since I had even heard his name. And so to learn of the news this last weekend — immediately when I heard the name, I associated him with a lot of fond memories. It took a tragedy that was already close to home and brought it right into the house, so to speak.

RW: What would you want people to remember about him?

TVH: One of the things I remember about him in particular was him being a helper. Anytime our directors needed somebody to do something — run an errand, hold a music stand, anything like that — Alex was one of the first people to throw his hand up in the air.

And Monday night, there was a school board meeting for the Green Bay Area Public School District where some of his former teachers and friends gave tribute to him. Teachers and choir directors recounted similar stories. There was one where a choir director had asked, “Does anyone want to volunteer for—?” And before they could even finish the ask, Alex threw his hand up in the air and said, “I’ll do it!” The teacher laughed and said, “You don’t even know what I’m asking for.”

It was affirming to find that where I remember Alex a certain way, other people who knew him later in life remembered him that same way. And when we pieced together the way in which he died — helping to protect a stranger he didn’t even know — he continued up until the day of his death to raise his hand and say, “I’m here to help.”

Editor’s note: WPR’s Joe Schulz contributed to this report.

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