Alex Pretti identified as man fatally shot by federal officers in Minneapolis

The man fatally shot by federal officers in Minneapolis on Saturday, Jan. 24, has been identified as Alex Jeffrey Pretti, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

The shooting follows the shooting death of Renee Good by an agent on Jan. 7 in Minneapolis.

Pretti, 37, has an address listed in south Minneapolis.

Reporters with the Minnesota Star Tribune reached two members of Pretti’s immediate family as the news was still spreading. His sister fought back sobs on the phone before hanging up.

At a news conference, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the man who was shot was a 37-year-old white man whose criminal record only showed some parking tickets. Law enforcement sources said Saturday their records show Pretti had no serious criminal history.

O’Hara said the man was a “lawful gun owner” with a permit to carry a firearm in public, a fact that was later repeated by Gov. Tim Walz.

Records show that Pretti attended the University of Minnesota. His LinkedIn page notes that he was a “junior scientist” at the University of Minnesota Medical School starting in 2012. State records show Pretti was issued in 2021 a license to be a registered nurse, and it remains active through March 2026.

“I’ve been chatting with the administrators, and we’re pretty devastated,” Blakeslee said.

While not identifying Pretti as the man who was killed, Walz said at a news conference Saturday that he was a Minnesota resident and “all of us understand what happened this morning and the tragedy of it.”

Just moments earlier, Border Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino said at a press conference that the man who was killed “wanted to do maximum damage to agents.”

Walz rejected that as a false narrative.

“Thank God we have video,” Walz said. “It’s nonsense people. It’s nonsense and it’s lies.”

“They already will slander this individual,” Walz said. “They already have made this the case. But you will all start to see it, some of you probably have, there are multiple angles [of this shooting]. And I’ll go back to what we talked about before. They’re telling you not to trust your eyes and ears. Not to trust the facts that you’re seeing.”

“There will be justice for Minnesotans,” Walz added.