Alex Pretti, US Citizen Killed by Federal Agents, Honoured With 'I Voted' Stickers on Election Day

Minneapolis voters turned grief into ballots on Election Day, leaving 'I Voted' stickers at the memorials for Alex Pretti and Renee Good, two US citizens killed by federal agents in January during an immigration crackdown that shook the Twin Cities.

FOX 9 reporters watched mourners press their stickers onto poles and signs at both sites on Tuesday. Dozens accumulated. Peg Ihinger, who left her early-voting sticker at Pretti's memorial, told MPR News, 'I just want this nightmare to end for our city and our country.'

'And damn it, they shouldn't have died,' Ihinger said.

A Ballot-Box Tribute

The gesture reframes a story that federal officials have cast as immigration enforcement. Neither Pretti nor Good was an immigration target. Both were US citizens, and both died during Operation Metro Surge, a crackdown that deployed roughly 3,000 federal agents to the Twin Cities.

The same tribute surfaced in Houston, where voters left stickers at a memorial for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, killed by a federal agent in July. Through their votes, residents made a point about who the crackdown actually reaches.

The Nurse at the Centre

Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, worked as an intensive care unit (ICU) nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Care System. On 24 January, he was filming agents when he stepped between an officer and a woman who had been pushed to the ground. Video footage shows agents spraying him, restraining him, and then shooting him after another agent removed his gun. Voting stickers now cover posts beside his memorial.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Pretti approached agents with a handgun and resisted. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said he was a legal gun owner with no criminal record, and local officials disputed the federal account. National Public Radio (NPR), which reviewed the footage, found no evidence he drew the weapon.

Renee Good, also 37, died 17 days earlier on 7 January when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jonathan Ross fired into her vehicle on Portland Avenue. A writer, poet, and mother, she too was a US citizen. DHS claimed she weaponised her car, a characterisation Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey rejected.

A Memorial Under Attack

Since September, caretakers have arrived to find the Pretti site doused in motor oil, covered in spray paint, and strewn with raw tuna, according to the Minnesota Reformer. The memorial's banner was cut down and stolen. Court filings reported by Talking Points Memo suggested undercover DHS agents monitored the site as part of wider surveillance of Twin Cities activists.

Volunteers rebuild it each time. Caretaker Jadah Green said the attacks only generate more support for the memorial.

No Charges, Mounting Pressure

More than nine months on, no agent has been charged over either death. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty's office is investigating possible state charges. Federal authorities provided some evidence in July, but Minnesota officials said in October court filings that sharing had stopped. For voters at the memorials, the stickers answer a question the shootings raised. If citizenship could not protect Pretti and Good, the ballot is what remains.