Alex Pretti's junior yearbook picture at Green Bay Preble High School. (Photo courtesy: Preble High School '04-'05 Yearbook)
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A high school friend is remembering his old friend Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old fatally killed Saturday by federal forces in Minneapolis.
Pretti grew up in Bellevue and graduated from Green Bay Preble High School in 2006 before heading out of state to study biology at the University of Minnesota, according to a former neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous. Pretti stayed in Minnesota to become a researcher and then an intensive care unit nurse.
“He was always a good person and always thought of him that way,” said Chris Di Salvi, a friend of Pretti’s from Preble and the University of Minnesota. “I was really heartbroken to hear him this way.”
Pretti’s former neighbor in Bellevue described him as a normal, fun person in his youth who would come over to hang out with his parents and one of his sisters. As he grew older, he became involved in school dramas, sang in the choir and ran track.
He became an avid outdoorsman in more recent years, his parents told the Associated Press.
Pretti’s parents have since moved to Colorado, though his sister still lives in Wisconsin. They told the Associated Press they knew he was actively protesting since the killing of Renee Good, saying, “Go ahead and protest, but do not engage. Do not do anything stupid, basically. And he said he knows that. He knew that.”
Michael and Susan Pretti, Alex’s parents, released a statement to Minnesota lawmakers on Saturday evening.
It reads in part:
“Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at Minneapolis VA hospital.”
It continues, “The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs.”
The family’s full statement can be read here.
Michael and Susan Pretti say their son owned a handgun and had a permit to carry in Minnesota. Minnesota is an open carry state.
“I never thought him to encourage any kind of violence at all,” said Di Salvi. “He was genuine, he was kind, he was friendly to everybody that I know. I can’t stress how much he was kind to everybody.”
Another fellow classmate, Matthew Reidinger, placed flowers and the Preble High School logo at the memorial site in south Minneapolis.
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