Federal prosecutors stopped sharing evidence, according to court filings
Michael and Susan Pretti said on Tuesday that the federal government had not reached out with substantive information about the officers who shot and killed their son for nine months. The parents of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse at a Minneapolis veterans hospital, asked the Department of Justice to hold the officers accountable. Pretti was shot on Jan. 24 during the Trump administration’s ramp-up in deportations targeting Minnesota.
Federal prosecutors disclosed in recent court filings that they had stopped sharing evidence with Minnesota authorities investigating the shootings of Pretti and Renee Good. Minnesota officials sued the Trump administration in March for access to materials they said they needed for independent investigations. The state is still seeking the cellphones of officers involved in both shootings and recordings of key interviews.
At a Minneapolis news conference organized by the family’s attorney, Steve Schleicher, Susan Pretti said the family wanted the truth told about Alex and what happened on the day he was killed. The Prettis described their treatment by the Trump administration as “cruelty” and said they decided to speak out after being “stonewalled” by Attorney General Todd Blanche and Dan Rosen, the top federal prosecutor in Minnesota.
“The federal government went on TV and lied about Alex,” Susan Pretti said. “They tried to slander his memory to cover up their crime. Not only was it wrong, it was shameful.”
Michael Pretti said federal officials had ignored and misled the family and shielded the people who shot his son. “At every turn, they have ignored us, misled us, and shielded Alex’s killers,” he said. “We are a family who love this country. We trust in the institutions of this country. We believe in the rule of law – and that people should be held accountable through that law.”
The Associated Press reported that, within moments of Pretti’s death, administration officials sought to portray him as an armed disruptor intent on doing harm to federal agents. Pretti was a U.S. citizen and nurse at a veterans hospital who had brought his own gun to a Minneapolis street where officers clashed with protesters. The report said Kristi Noem, the then-Homeland Security secretary, painted the Veterans Administration hospital nurse as a domestic terrorist who violently resisted federal agents. Court records showed that Pretti had no criminal record.
Bystander video recorded that day showed Pretti with only a mobile phone in his hand. The Associated Press reported that no footage had since emerged showing him brandishing a weapon or attacking federal officers in the moments before he was killed. The Prettis disputed the federal account.
After months of contacting Rosen’s office, the family met with him in July. The family and Schleicher said the meeting raised more questions than answers because Rosen would not provide even basic information about the status of the federal investigation into Pretti’s death. A spokesman for Rosen’s office had no comment Tuesday, and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the family’s remarks.
The Trump administration has suggested that state prosecutors do not have jurisdiction to investigate federal officers. Minnesota officials have said they do not trust the federal government to investigate itself. Minnesota’s March lawsuit seeks access to materials that state investigators say they need to examine the shootings.
Michael Pretti said the family learned of Alex’s death from the media after an Associated Press reporter called. “We learned about his death from the media as we saw him being shot repeatedly in the back after helping a woman from his community, a fellow Minnesotan, who had been shoved to the ground viciously,” he said. He said no federal official called the family on that day and that the family had received no call since.
Michael Pretti said the videos of his son’s killing haunt his family every day. “I think it haunts many Americans to see a U.S. citizen who was peaceful and in his community shot multiple times on the back, in the back, while on the ground,” the father said, calling his family heartbroken. “We wish we didn’t have to be here,” he said. “We wish Alex was alive. We wish we were simply in Minneapolis to visit with Alex. For he and I to chat about cars, hiking, biking or anything that came to our mind. This administration has taken that away from us forever.”
Michael Biesecker reported from Pittsburgh.