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It's been a little more than a week since Border Patrol officers shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Pretti worked at the Minneapolis VA as an ICU nurse. His colleagues there have held vigils to remember him at a few VA facilities across the country. Pretti's death and the reaction from VA leadership comes after what many VA staff say was a long year. NPR's Quil Lawrence has the story.
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD #1: (Chanting) We are with you, Minneapolis. We are with you, Minneapolis.
QUIL LAWRENCE, BYLINE: Thousands gathered in the freezing cold late last week for a candlelight vigil in New York. They filled the sidewalk for blocks, squeezing between the walls of the Manhattan VA and massive snowbanks leftover from the blizzard that hit New York the same day Pretti died.
JOSH LUCAS: That was upsetting. And then when I found out that he was one of us, a VA nurse...
LAWRENCE: Josh Lucas is a former Marine who came out to be counted. He gets his health care here at the Manhattan VA.
LUCAS: VA nurses are very close to home for me - my primary caregivers since 2009.
LAWRENCE: Nearby, a small group of VA nurses say they're feeling shocked by Alex Pretti's death, but also at the Trump administration's treatment of it. A VA nurses union official asked not to be named for fear of retaliation.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Lately, VA workers, federal employees have been feeling a lot of attack from this administration.
LAWRENCE: The past year has left VA staff feeling precarious as the Trump administration floated different plans to drastically cut the VA's workforce and eliminated collective bargaining for most unions. VA Secretary Doug Collins initially considered trimming 83,000 posts, even though the VA has been chronically short-staffed in key health care jobs. That plan was scrapped, but 30,000 VA employees have left, and the secretary announced that many of them won't be replaced as he moves to restructure the department. And when Alex Pretti died, Collins didn't comment until a day and a half later on social media, where he blamed Minnesota politicians for the killing. After the Trump administration backed off calling Pretti a domestic terrorist, Collins spoke about his death at a Senate hearing.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DOUG COLLINS: I want to express my deepest sympathies to the family and colleagues of Minneapolis VA Medical Center nurse, Alex Pretti. As you know, the death is currently under investigation. VA is not involved in that investigation. Neither I nor my fellow panelists are rarely able to give additional details at this time. We're going to continue to be and lift the family up in our prayers.
LAWRENCE: VA officials mentioned that hundreds of Pretti's colleagues at the Minneapolis VA had held a vigil, but they later admitted the memorial was held despite the Minneapolis VA director sending an email to all staff saying she had been told to postpone the ceremony. NPR heard from a dozen VA staff that Collins' response unsettled them. They all asked for anonymity because they feared retribution.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Chanting) Say their names.
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD #2: (Chanting) Say their names.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Chanting) Say their names.
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD #2: (Chanting) Say their names.
LAWRENCE: Just like that VA nurses union official at the Manhattan Vigil, she says the way VA leadership handled Pretti's death felt callous.
(CHEERING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: We don't want to keep losing nurses, or we don't want to keep being attacked as federal employees when we're just coming to help these veterans, help our patients. We care. We want people to care about us, too. We're not disposable.
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD #2: (Chanting) Alex Pretti.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Chanting) Alex Pretti.
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD #2: (Chanting) Alex Pretti.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Chanting) Alex Pretti.
LAWRENCE: Quil Lawrence, NPR News, New York.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHANCE THE RAPPER SONG, "CHILD OF GOD") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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