Vigil for Alex Pretti, ICE shooting victim, draws huge crowd at Manhattan's VA Hospital

Barry Williams and Colin Mixson, New York Daily News on Jan 29, 2026

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NEW YORK — Thousands of New Yorkers, including a large contingent of nurses, gathered outside the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Manhattan for a vigil for Alex Pretti, the second person to be gunned down by federal agents amid the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.

The massive crowd — estimated at up to 2,000 people — gathered outside the VA NY Harbor Healthcare System on E. 23rd St. near First Ave. in Kips Bay around 5 p.m.

Members of the crowd lit candles and carried signs that read, “Justice for Alex Pretti,” “Love melts ICE” and “Abolish ICE.” A statement by Pretti’s parents was read aloud.

Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, was gunned down by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis on Jan. 24.

Video from the scene showed Pretti trying to assist a woman after an ICE agent shoved her to the ground, then being pepper-sprayed and wrestled to the pavement by several agents, one of them removing a gun from Pretti’s waistband, before two agents opened fire on him.

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