Portlanders gathered on a cold Tuesday night, on the road across from the entrance to the Portland VA Medical Center, to build a memorial to Alex Pretti.
They piled flowers and set flags along the guardrail across from the road leading up to the hospital. They lit candles, 21 in all, and left notes for the ICU nurse from Minneapolis who was shot by two federal agents on Saturday.
William Joyce, a nurse, adjusts a candle at a gathering outside of the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Jan. 27, 2026, in remembrance of Alex Pretti, depicted at right, a VA nurse and U.S. citizen who was killed by two U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in Minneapolis on Jan. 24, 2026.
Eli Imadali / OPB
“Alex, this should not have happened to you.” a person wrote.
Another note, attached to a sprig of rosemary with a purple ribbon: “We will not forget.”
The vigil, organized by a local chapter of the grassroots liberal group “Indivisible” drew about 200 people, including many nurses.
Health care workers in cities across the country have gathered for vigils following Pretti’s death — and called for a full investigation of the federal agents who shot him.
Pretti, 37, was the second American killed this month during the ongoing immigration enforcement crackdown in Minneapolis. He worked as an intensive care unit nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center.
About two dozen nurses and doctors from the Portland VA joined the crowd that was honoring Pretti Tuesday, some in their scrubs on their way into work for an evening shift.
Karen James holds up a photograph of Alex Pretti, a VA nurse and U.S. citizen who was killed by two U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in Minneapolis on Jan. 24, 2026, as immigration officers drive out of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, Ore., on Jan. 27, 2026. A couple dozen gathered outside the facility following a vigil, which James attended, outside the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center in remembrance of Pretti.
Eli Imadali / OPB
Ruby Parco-Magalit, a bedside nurse with the Portland VA, attended the memorial with a small group of friends. She said she had come to support her colleagues and her neighbors, including immigrants.
“I need to show my face and have my voice heard,” Parco-Magalit said, “I think I’ve been lurking in the dark.”
Other VA staff who attended the memorial held signs denouncing ICE, but didn’t want to give their names. Morale at the federal agency has been low, they said, with little more than a formal email that went out this week acknowledging Pretti’s death.
No one at the vigil had met Pretti. But many in the crowd teared up speaking about him and the video footage of his death.
Many said they were moved by how he appeared to be trying to help someone in his final moments.
“I could see myself doing that,” said registered nurse Laura Pike, fighting back tears. “We run into the fire.”
Pike’s friend Jesse Charlestream, also a registered nurse, said nurses care for people regardless of their politics or what they’ve done before they come through the hospital doors. They might attend to a patient who’s been stabbed – and the person who stabbed them.
“If an ICE agent got shot, we’d be at the bedside taking care of them,” Chalestream said.
Charlestream said it was particularly disturbing to see government officials blaming Pretti for his own death.
Nursing students embrace at a gathering outside of the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Jan. 27, 2026, in remembrance of Alex Pretti, depicted at right, a VA nurse and U.S. citizen who was killed by two U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in Minneapolis on Jan. 24, 2026.
Eli Imadali / OPB
Following Pretti’s death, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused him of attacking federal officers and of domestic terrorism, without evidence.
In videos authenticated by the New York Times, Pretti was filmed observing immigration enforcement agents on a Minneapolis street. In the moments leading up to his death, he holds onto a woman after she was pepper sprayed by federal agents.
Pretti had a holstered gun on his body and was holding a cell phone in his hand during the incident. Federal agents pulled Pretti to the ground, pepper sprayed him, and disarmed him before shooting him repeatedly.
Local officials said Pretti was a lawful gun owner with a permit and no criminal record.
According to NPR, a preliminary internal government assessment of the shooting, known as a death notice, makes no mention of Pretti attacking or threatening officers.
The vigil in Portland lasted for an hour Tuesday night. As it ended, several people marched down the hill to join a small demonstration in front of the U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement building on Macadam Avenue.
The building was, for a time last year, the flashpoint in the president’s attempt to federalize the National Guard and deploy them to Portland.
OPB’s Eli Imadali contributed to this report.
