For nursing student Evangelina Laufert, Alex Pretti's death hit close to home.
Laufert, currently on rotation at Seattle's Veterans Affairs hospital, said Pretti — an intensive care nurse at a veterans' hospital in Minneapolis — could've been any one of the nurses she works with.
We're supposed to be the ones helping people, and that's all he was doing. And look where it got him," said Laufert, 22.
She and at least 150 others rallied Tuesday evening across the street from the Seattle Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Beacon Hill, in support of Pretti, who was shot and killed by federal agents Saturday in Minneapolis. The rally and vigil were organized in part by the American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents VA hospital employees like Pretti.
In an emailed statement, Local 3197 President Peter Hranek called Pretti's death shocking and called for justice.
“Alex Pretti died as he lived, helping others. By all accounts, he was a good and kind man,” Hranek wrote. "He didn't deserve to die like that. He didn't deserve to be called a terrorist. He deserves our respect, and he deserves justice.”
Pretti's death on Saturday came two and a half weeks after Renee Good was killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, also in Minneapolis. Both deaths have led to outrage and national protests. This weekend, hundreds gathered at Seattle's Henry M. Jackson federal building downtown to decry the deaths and immigration enforcement tactics of President Donald Trump's administration.
On Tuesday, mourners had erected a memorial to Pretti across from the hospital, along South Columbian Way. A photo of the 37-year-old dressed in scrubs, posed in front of an American flag, sat on a table surrounded by candles.
Several medical employees donning scrubs attended Tuesday's event, including Registered Nurse Cutler Richardson, who has worked at Seattle’s VA hospital for eight years. He felt it was important to take a stand.
“What they're doing is wrong,” Richardson, 49, said.
Stacy Dietzgen, an internal medicine doctor at the VA hospital, attended the rally as an act of solidarity.
I think we're all out here just because all that we've seen in the news reporting, and from the people who knew him, he was a very caring person,” she said, “And then he was a very caring nurse.”
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