Hero

Alex Jeffery Pretti has been sitting on my shoulder for the last four days. I can’t get him off my mind. Ever since I saw a picture of him leaned against a rock somewhere in the mountains wearing a blue Goretex jacket with the hood pulled over a helmet, I’ve been thinking about him. He’s not wearing a big smile, half smile maybe, he looks quiet, but intense and he looks athletic. I assume he’s a rock climber.

Alex has my attention. I see another picture of him. He’s standing with his mountain bike turned sideways on a wide trail in the forest. It’s 29r Surley Karate Monkey with a frame bag, two water bottles and clean free wheel. He sporting the same half smile, he looks kind, but serious. He’s wearing a shirt with Minneapolis printed across the front. Everything about him is tidy and organized.

The videos of ICE killing him are everywhere. Trump, Noem, Patel, Vance and Stephen Miller call him a domestic terrorist and say he attacked ICE with his pistol drawn. More videos and news emerges, he’s carrying a gun in a holster, he has permit. He never removes it from his holster. ICE only finds his gun after they’ve tackled him and you can see it happen in the video.

Alex Pretti is an intensive care nurse. He works in a veterans hospital. His patients and their families are speaking out. Alex was patient, he listened to them and he answered their questions. He’s a good man, everyone says. There is video of him reading a eulogy over a dead veteran.

I watch the videos of Alex before, during and after his shooting many times. They don’t show a domestic terrorist. He doesn’t have a gun in his hand, only a phone. The whole event is short. A woman gets pushed. Pretti goes over to her. You can see his lips move. Are you okay? He helps the woman up. Their arms are around each other’s backs supporting each other. Another woman is pushed to the ground. Pretti goes to help. An ICE thug sprays Alex in the face multiple times. Alex keeps trying to help the woman. Two members of ICE attack Pretti. He doesn’t fight back, but he’s not a push over. Two more ICE join the fray. They got him good but he still trying to get up. Now there are seven surrounding him. One is beating him with the butt of his gun. One of the ICE yells, gun!! He steps back ten feet. One second later a shot is fired.

People are screaming—total chaos. Multiple shots are fired. Quite a few. Ten they say, from two different guns. The agents move away. Alex Pretti lies limp on the ground. They killed him.

I see another picture of Alex, he’s somewhere in big snowy mountains. Looks like Colorado. Same half smile. He’s wearing a down coat.

Alex was a rock climber, he was a mountain biker, he was a boy scout and he loved dogs. As a nurse, he was committed to helping people.

The white house’s spokesperson is changing her tune as is Noem, Trump and Patel and Stephen Miller is saying, protocol might not have been followed. Now, no one says he has a gun in his hand. Five of Fox News reporters have watched the videos and are asking the hard questions. Even stanch Trump supporter, Fox’s Maria Bartiromo is calling BS on what is being said in the Maga world. Every gun rights organization is in support of Pretti’s right to carry. Republican and Maga Governor Abbott of Texas, calls Alex Pretti’s shooting “bad optics”. Republican Senator Tom Thillis is calling for Noem’s and Patel’s resignations. Joe Rogan, Peirs Morgan and even fucking Stephan A. Smith are staying Pretti wasn’t waving a gun and didn’t deserve to die. Alex Pretti is doing what no country or person has done in our ten plus year of Trump. He is getting the whole damn rotten bunch of them to back down.

I can’t avoid Alex Pretti. 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue in the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis is now a shrine and should always be one. Senator Raphael Warnock traveled to the spot and stayed for a while. Bicycle shops all over the country are planning Alex Pretti Memorial rides. I want to go to 26th and Nicollet. Alex is being hailed as a martyr and a hero. Almost overnight, and rightfully so, he becomes the most famous rock climber/mountain biker in the country.

Pretti has had one run-in with ICE. It happened a couple of weeks ago. They threw him to the ground. He broke a rib. He spoke with his father about it. Alex said he knew what he was doing. He was persistent before the shooting, but backed up every time ICE moved forward. He moves quick while filming what was going on. He went to help one woman and then another who is being thrown and pushed around by the ice thugs. He tried to help as he was being sprayed. It was his nature.

Bruce Springsteen has written and recorded a song: The streets of Minneapolis. He sings about Alex Pretti and Renee Good. It brings me to tears. Nurses are celebrating him across the country. Maga doesn’t read the news so they don’t know their leaders are backing down on Pretti’s actions before the shooting and are pushing the old mean and vile narrative on social media about Alex.

I wish I could meet Alex at the crag rock climbing or for a ride. I wish I could invite him to the bike shop for a beer. I wish I could tell him what a stud he is. He never fought back with ICE. He was focused on helping the two women. I wish I could hug him.

I can’t do anything except write about Alex Jeffry Pretti. I can put him in the book I’m writing about Dead Alaskans, even though he is not Alaskan. I can honor him as a hero and martyr and hope, that long after I’m gone and my words have faded that Alex is remembered, because Alex Pretti is one of us.