Alex Pretti’s nursing student honors him in letter recalling his final words: ‘Are you okay?’
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: Alex Pretti’s last nursing student has remembered him as a calm and compassionate person in a letter.
The 37-year-old ICU nurse was fatally shot on January 24 by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis.
His death has further flamed protests that have already been going on in the state for weeks after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed Renee Good on January 7.
BREAKING: A letter from Alex Pretti’s Final Nursing Student:
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) January 26, 2026
“I was Alex Pretti’s final nursing student. He was my friend and my nursing mentor. For the past four months, I stood shoulder to shoulder with him during my capstone preceptorship at the Minneapolis VA Hospital.… pic.twitter.com/Wm2H45Fvt2
Alex Pretti's student praises mentor
In the letter by Pretti's student, shared on X by media commentator Brian Krassenstein, the late nurse's student has said, “He was my friend and my nursing mentor. For the past four months, I stood shoulder to shoulder with him during my capstone preceptorship at the Minneapolis VA Hospital. There he trained me to care for the sickest of the sick as an ICU nurse.”
The nursing student claimed that they learned “techniques intended to heal” from Pretti while saying he “carried patience, compassion and calm as a steady light within him”.
Recalling his final moments, the student wrote, “Even at the very end, that light was there. I recognized his familiar stillness and signature calm composure shining through during those unbearable final moments captured on camera.”
“It does not surprise me that his final words were, ‘Are you okay?’,” they said.
As per reports, just before his death, Pretti was trying to protect a woman from ICE agents.
He first told an officer to not touch the woman before asking her, “Are you okay?”
Pretti's student says he always cared for people
The student further noted, “Caring for people was at the core of who he was. He was incapable of causing harm. He lived a life of healing, and he lived it well.”
“Alex believed strongly in the Second Amendment and in the rights rooted in our Constitution and its amendments,” they asserted, before mentioning his family.
The student penned, “I want his family to know his legacy lives on. I am a better nurse because of the wisdom and skills he instilled in me. I carry his light with me into every room.”
Alex Pretti's student asks people to 'stand up for justice'
“Please honor my friend by standing up for peace, preferably with a cup of black coffee in hand and a couple of pieces of candy in your pocket, just as he would,” the letter read.
Concluding the letter, the student said, “Stand up for justice and speak with those whose views differ from your own. Hold your beliefs with strength, but always extend love outward, even in the face of adversity.”
“Take one step, no matter how small, to help heal our world. Through these acts, carry his light forward in his name. Let his legacy continue to heal,” they added.
