“Without Him, I Might Not Have Been Here,” Air Force Veteran Says — ICU Nurse Alex Pretti Remembered for “Comforting” Patient Weeks Before Federal Shooting

When Alex Pretti appeared on local news coverage, Minneapolis Air Force veteran Sonny Fouts recognized him right away. Just two weeks earlier, Pretti had been the ICU nurse who stayed with Sonny, 71, through the night after a major surgery.

“I’m saddened,” Sonny says. “I’m saddened to the deepest part of my heart.”

Sonny and his significant other, Kimberly Fouts, first met Pretti, 37, on Jan. 12, when Sonny underwent a descending aorta aneurysm repair procedure at the VA Medical Center, where Pretti worked.

The surgery lasted nine hours. Afterward, Sonny was moved to the ICU, where Pretti cared for him overnight.

Kimberly recalls spending the day in the family waiting room—from 6 a.m. until 5 p.m.—before she was told she could visit Sonny in the ICU.

“I walked in, and Sonny’s just hooked up to so many machines and needles and tubes, and Alex was his nurse and he just lightened the situation,” Kimberly says. “There are nurses who come in and don’t really say anything, and Alex was not like that. I appreciated that I immediately felt comfortable with him. And I felt that Sonny was in good hands.”

Sonny, a retired musician who played saxophone and guitar and wrote and performed his own songs, says he still remembers the way Pretti helped steady him in a frightening moment.

“I do remember how he comforted me, helped me, did his job,” Sonny says. “He made me feel as comfortable as possible. He made me laugh a few times — and I certainly didn’t feel like laughing.”

Sonny says Pretti also made an effort to reassure Kimberly, something the couple never forgot.

Both of them recognized Pretti’s face again on Saturday, Jan. 24, after they saw news reports that he had been fatally shot by federal officers in Minneapolis.

“It’s very sad. I hate it,” Sonny says. “I’m not a Democrat. I’m not a Republican. But what the hell’s going on in this city of ours?”

Since learning of Pretti’s death, Sonny says he’s struggled physically and emotionally—dealing with headaches and stomach pain and finding it difficult to sleep.

“I don’t like looking at the TV about it. I don’t want to read any newspaper stories,” he says. “I don’t use the word ‘hero,’ but I guess I could say that.”

Without the care Pretti provided that night—and the treatment Sonny received overall—he believes his recovery could have gone very differently.

“Without him,” Sonny says, “I might not have been here.”

A doctor who worked closely with Pretti earlier in his career also said the news of his death was hard to process. Dr. Shaukat, who hired Pretti as a research assistant in 2014 and worked with him until 2020, said she was “absolutely shocked.”

“I’m just so aghast that he got caught up in all of this,” she says. “He was not a troublemaker. He did not have crazy extreme views, at least that he expressed to us. He just was a good citizen and he cared for his fellow citizens. The fact that got him beaten and killed is just devastating.”

Dr. Shaukat remembered him as someone colleagues genuinely liked being around.

“He was just a joy,” she said. “He was just a really sweet person that you could just talk to. No pretense. No complicated factors. Just who he was is how he came across. He was very supportive if you ever needed him to do something — you never had to think twice.”