Was Alex Pretti fired over allegations of inappropriate conduct with patients several months before federal agents killed him on a Minneapolis street? No, that's not true: The viral fake news article that started this rumor listed the wrong hospital as his employer, misstated his age and used a recycled image of a different person who had been misidentified as Pretti in a parody post. The Secretary of Veterans Affairs confirmed Pretti was an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center. People who worked with Pretti emphasized in public statements that he cared deeply about people and praised his professionalism. No real news reporting has corroborated the firing claim.
The claim originated from an article (archived here) published on Jan. 27, 2026, on buzzreport247.com. It opened:
In a rare public statement, the director of Lakeshore Medical Center has confirmed that former staff member Alex Pretti was terminated three months ago following a series of disturbing complaints from patients' families regarding his alleged perverted actions toward vulnerable individuals under the hospital's care.
Dr. Elena Vasquez, the hospital's executive director, addressed the media during a press briefing earlier today, emphasizing the institution's commitment to patient safety and ethical standards. 'At Lakeshore Medical Center, the well-being of our patients is our utmost priority,' Dr. Vasquez stated. 'We take all complaints seriously, and in the case of Mr. Pretti, multiple reports from families detailed behaviors that were not only unprofessional but deeply concerning and inappropriate.'
This is what the article looked like on buzzreport247 at the time of writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of article at buzzreport247.com)
Lead Stories found no evidence that any allegations from the story were grounded in facts.
The viral piece incorrectly identified the hospital where Pretti actually worked. U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins confirmed (archived here) Pretti worked for the VA medical center in Minneapolis.
A statement (archived here and here) issued by U.S. Senator and Ranking Member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Richard Blumenthal on Jan. 26, 2026, describes Pretti's place of employment as "the Minneapolis VA Medical Center". That is a real healthcare facility (archived here) -- unlike "Lakeshore Medical Center" from the article, whose exact name couldn't be found in Minnesota on Google Maps.
Two days earlier, a union representing federal workers said in a post (archived here) on Facebook that Pretti was a member of its Minneapolis VA chapter, AFGE Local 3669.
The place of employment from Blumenthal's and the union's statements is consistent with numerous media reports in which people who knew him praised his work ethic. Collins did not praise Pretti, but did confirm he was on the VA staff, not fired, as the fake news report claimed.
His colleague, Garrett Peterson (archived here), posted a photo (archived here) of Pretti under the caption that read:
This is Alex!!! A wonderful ICU nurse at Minneapolis VA Hospital whom I worked with!!!
Jessica Hauser, who worked with Pretti as well, wrote on Facebook:
I was Alex Pretti's final nursing student. He was my friend and my nursing mentor. For the past four months, I stood shoulder to shoulder with him during my capstone preceptorship at the Minneapolis VA Hospital. There he trained me to care for the sickest of the sick as an ICU nurse. He taught me how to care for arterial and central lines, the intricacies of managing multiple IVs filled with lifesaving solutions, and how to watch over every heartbeat, every breath, and every flicker of life, ready to act the moment they wavered...
She continued:
Caring for people was at the core of who he was. He was incapable of causing harm. He lived a life of healing, and he lived it well.
Pretti's patient, Marta Crownheart, told Kare 11 (archived here), an NBC affiliate in Minneapolis, that he found time to comfort her when she was thinking she had a stroke, despite having multiple veterans to care about at his hospital unit.
Chief of Infectious Diseases Section at the Minneapolis VA Dimitri Drekonja (archived here) described him on Bluesky (archived here) as "a good, kind person who lived to help."
Once, Pretti gave a speech honoring his veteran patient who had died earlier. Mac Randolph, whose father was that patient, shared a video (archived here and here) of that moment on Facebook. It was published with the caption:
Fathers final words to me was continue to fight the good fight. He would be honored in Alex' sacrifice...
In a conversation with the Associated Press (archived here), Michael Pretti, Alex's father, described his son as "a kind-hearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital."
As Lead Stories previously wrote, Pretti had an active and unrestricted RN license at the time of his death, and those records did not show any marks suggesting that he was disciplined. He didn't quit that job months before the fatal shooting, either.
Born in 1988, as his license showed, Pretti was 37 years old at the time of his death, not 42, as the viral fake news story stated. And the image of a person in a pink dress reused in the piece never showed him -- it was an altered picture of a different man.
