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The day After<\/span> Customs and Border Protection officers shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, his federal employer knew who to blame: Minnesota\u2019s local government.<\/p>\n \u201cAs President Trump has said, nobody wants to see chaos and death in American cities,\u201d\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0Doug Collins, the secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, on X Sunday. \u201cSuch tragedies are unfortunately happening in Minnesota because of state and local officials\u2019 refusal to cooperate with the federal government to enforce the law and deport dangerous illegal criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n A CBP agent with eight years of experience shot Pretti on Saturday, CBP commander-at-large Gregory Bovino said over the weekend. According to a New York Times\u00a0analysis<\/a>, multiple agents wrestled Pretti to the ground, and\u00a0two agents shot\u00a0him\u00a0at least 10 times in total. Department of Homeland Security officials claim the shooting was a defensive response after Pretti approached agents with a firearm<\/a>, but videos from the scene suggest that agents had removed Pretti\u2019s gun from his hip before killing him.<\/p>\n Sworn eyewitness declarations from the scene also contradict DHS\u2019s narrative. Two witnesses swear\u00a0that Pretti, a U.S. citizen, was filming agents with a cellphone when he was forced to the ground and shot multiple times. One declaration <\/a>was submitted by a\u00a0licensed pediatrician who said they attempted to render medical aid after agents initially blocked access to the victim.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When The Intercept reached out to the VA for a statement about Pretti\u2019s killing, press secretary Peter Kasperowicz directed inquiries to Collins\u2019s post, which offered condolences to Pretti\u2019s family before shifting blame to Minnesota officials. The secretary\u2019s post did not acknowledge that federal agents fired the shots.<\/p>\n The Intercept also asked whether the VA was providing counseling or support services to Pretti\u2019s co-workers or family, and whether the department had initiated any internal review following the violent death of a federal employee.<\/p>\n Kasperowicz did not answer those questions, nor did he respond to follow-up questions asking whether the VA had contacted Pretti\u2019s family, notified staff at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, or taken steps to provide employee assistance services.<\/p>\n Pretti\u2019s death has prompted public expressions of grief from co-workers. In a social media post, Dr. Dimitri Drekonja, who identifies himself as a physician at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, wrote that he had known Pretti since nursing school, before Pretti became an ICU nurse caring for critically ill veterans.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019d chat between patients about trying to get in a mountain bike ride together,\u201d Drekonja wrote<\/a>. \u201cWill never happen now.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n