Dozens of community members, including healthcare workers and an elected official gathered at Mitchell Park on Saturday evening for a candlelight vigil honoring Alex Pretti. Pretti, was an intensive care nurse from Minneapolis who was fatally shot by federal immigration agents last month.
Participants held candles and handmade signs as the sun set, remembering Pretti and calling for accountability and changes to federal immigration enforcement practices. Emotions ran high as speaker after speaker declared that Pretti’s death should never have happened.
Randy Scott, a retired intensive care nurse who attended the vigil with his wife, said he would have responded the same way Pretti did after federal agents shoved a woman into a snow bank, and that Pretti’s actions were consistent with the values of healthcare workers nationwide.
“It's what nurses do,” Scott said. “And to have somebody of that caliber of a nurse lose his life for that is completely unconscionable. It just is.”
Assemblymember Dawn Addis, who represents parts of San Luis Obispo County, also joined the crowd. She said she felt compelled to be there as a lawmaker and the daughter of a nurse.
“The community is in pain,” Addis said, “Neighbors are really under attack. ICE and the federal administration has really not just made people afraid, but given them a true cause to be afraid. And nurses are the life blood of many communities.”
The shooting has sparked widespread condemnation and raised questions about the degree of force used by federal immigration authorities.
The vigil was organized by the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United, which are calling on Congress to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement and to reject federal spending that funds immigration enforcement agencies.
“I feel like we’ve gotten to a point now where it’s not just about the politics of being Republican or Democrat, on the left or on the right,” said Tina Scott, another vigil participant. “This is about a moral compass and ethics.”
Federal authorities have opened a civil rights investigation into Pretti’s death. As of Sunday, no criminal charges have been filed.
