Man Killed by Officers in Minneapolis Wasn’t ‘Someone Who Would Pick a Fight,’ High School Friend Recalls 

Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old man who was shot and killed by federal officers in Minneapolis, is being remembered by a longtime friend as someone who wasn’t aggressive or confrontational.

Rory Shefchek, who attended Preble High School in Wisconsin with Pretti, said it felt surreal to see someone he knew at the center of a high-profile incident.

“It’s just so crazy to see this,” Shefchek said, adding that although he doesn’t consider himself political, the news hit hard because it involved someone he had grown up with. He described Pretti—an ICU nurse—as “a good dude” and “always a really nice guy.”

Shefchek said the two graduated together in 2006 and remembered Pretti as active, social, and well-liked.

“He was involved in a lot of extracurriculars… I just always thought he was a great dude,” Shefchek said. “He was funny. He was very talented.”

The pair sang together in choir and participated in solo ensemble, Shefchek recalled, and Pretti also played football.

“He was just your average all-American guy,” he said. “He got along with everybody.”

Shefchek added that when he first met Pretti as a teenager, his impression was immediate.

“I immediately thought he was just somebody you could just talk to right away,” he said, describing him as “warm and welcoming.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security offered a different account of what happened the day Pretti was killed, alleging he approached U.S. Border Patrol officers while armed with a handgun and resisted as officers tried to disarm him on Jan. 24. The statement said an agent then fired “defensive shots.”

Following the shooting, at least 200 protesters gathered near the scene, and confrontations broke out between federal law enforcement and local residents, The Associated Press reported.

In a press conference afterward, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said that, to his knowledge, Pretti’s only prior interactions with law enforcement were related to parking tickets. O’Hara also said Pretti was a lawful gun owner with a permit.

Shefchek said he and Pretti went to different colleges after high school but stayed connected through social media. When the death became public on Jan. 24, he reached out to former classmates and family members, saying many were stunned.

“The first thing I did was reach out to some other classmates and my family… Everybody’s posting pictures of him, and we’re just all like, ‘How could this happen to somebody like that?’” he said.

Shefchek said he worries people will incorrectly assume Pretti was trying to provoke law enforcement.

“This seems really odd,” he said. “It’s not like [he was] somebody who was an agitator… I hope people don’t think this is a guy that was out there trying to pick a fight with law enforcement. I really don’t think that’s the case.”

He added that such behavior would have been completely out of character and said Pretti should be remembered as “a happy-go-lucky, nice guy.”

Ultimately, Shefchek said the death has left him angry and unsettled—especially because it no longer feels distant.

“It’s easy to detach yourself when it’s not people you know,” he said. “So it’s really weird to hear somebody from your little small town of a hundred thousand people is literally dead.”