A doctor who mentored and worked with Alex Pretti described him as “a good citizen” whose “life was just starting.”

Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse for the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, was shot and killed by Border Patrol officers in Minneapolis on Saturday. Multiple videos of the confrontation showed federal agents spraying Pretti with a substance and pinning him to the ground before the shooting.

Dr. Aasma Shaukat, who first hired Pretti as a research assistant at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System over 10 years ago, called the loss “devastating.”

Shaukat told ABC News she hired Pretti, despite his lack of experience, because he was “eager to learn.”

An undated handout image of Alex Pretti, who was fatally shot by U.S. immigration agents as they tried to detain him in Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 25, 2026.
Department Of Veterans Affairs via Reuters

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“He didn’t have any experience, but he was very, very eager to get the position and learn on the job and then eventually launch a career in health care,” Shaukat said. “He worked hard, he was willing to learn on the job. Really had a good work ethic.”

While working as a research assistant, Pretti delivered pizza to make ends meet and often joked that his car was too old to qualify for Uber, Shaukat said.

Shaukat said she wrote Pretti’s recommendation for nursing school.

He later returned to the VA to work as a nurse in the ICU where he was “really good” at speaking with patients, Shaukat said.

People mourn at a makeshift memorial in the area where 37-year-old Alex Pretti was shot dead by federal immigration agents earlier in the day in Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 24, 2026.
Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images

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“He was just somebody you could talk to because he would get it,” she said.

Tensions are continuing to escalate in Minneapolis in the wake of Pretti’s shooting.

The Department of Homeland Security alleged that Pretti approached Border Patrol agents with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun and “violently resisted” when agents tried to disarm him. However, a witness said in a federal court filing that after an agent shoved a woman to the ground, Pretti appeared to try to help the woman up, and then agents threw Pretti to the ground and shot him. Local officials are accusing federal officials of rushing to “spin” the story.

People mourn as they gather at the site where a man was fatally shot by federal agents trying to detain him, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 24, 2026.
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

Shaukat called the shooting “senseless,” adding, “I do not see him as being a troublemaker, an instigator looking for trouble, or seeking to incite violence … I truly think he was doing it out of his duty of citizenship and his civic sense.”

Shaukat said she last spoke to Pretti during the summer.

“He said things were looking good,” she said. “He finally had enough money to do repairs on his house. And I feel like his life was just starting.”