{"id":543336,"date":"2026-01-26T04:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T04:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/543336\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T04:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T04:48:09","slug":"phoenix-vigil-honors-man-shot-killed-by-federal-agent-in-minneapolis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/543336\/","title":{"rendered":"Phoenix vigil honors man shot, killed by federal agent in Minneapolis"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHOENIX (AZFamily)<\/b> \u2014 Hundreds of people walked from a downtown Phoenix church parking lot to the ICE field office Sunday afternoon to join in prayer for Alex Jeffrey Pretti, who was shot by a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis<\/a> Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

The vigil was the first for Pretti in the Phoenix metro area, organized by faith leaders who take a non-violent approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m feeling very worried about the moral direction of this country,\u201d said Rev. Katie Sexton, the organizer and executive director of Arizona Faith Network<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, was killed as a result of the shooting. The Trump administration backed the federal officer\u2019s fatal actions, saying he fired his weapon \u201cdefensively\u201d and called Pretti a \u201cdomestic terrorist\u201d and \u201cwould-be assassin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through song and prayer, families leaned on their faith to honor Pretti.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s an ICU nurse that\u2019s running to someone who has been hurt or is in the process of being hurt. That is literally his calling in his profession. And so he\u2019s doing what he has been called to do in this world. And to lose his life over that is just very heartbreaking,\u201d said Rev. Sexton.<\/p>\n

Pastor Warren Stewart Sr., with the First Institutional Baptist Church<\/a>, said, \u201cWe grieve with you. We are sorry for what happened. And we\u2019re going to try to see that it doesn\u2019t happen again, if we can help it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alicia Contreras Alas, an executive director for Corazon-AZ<\/a>, said, \u201cWe want our siblings and brothers and sisters in Minnesota and across the country to know that we\u2019re united.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the sea of posters with messages like \u201cNo More Murder,\u201d \u201cAbolish ICE,\u201d and \u201cICE Melts in Phoenix,\u201d were signs with the name Renee Good. Less than two weeks ago, Good was shot and killed<\/a> by an ICE agent in Minnesota near the neighborhood where Pretti died.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is just heartbreaking to watch over and over again the loss of life that does not need to be happening in the streets,\u201d said Rev. Sexton.<\/p>\n

Pastor Stewart said, \u201cWe must not complain and comply. We must courageously resist. And that\u2019s what this crowd is doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contreras Alas described the emotional toll, saying, \u201cSome days I just need to cry, other days I\u2019m just in my lament and angry, and other days I\u2019m just exhausted.\u201d<\/p>\n

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here<\/a> with a brief description.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 KTVK\/KPHO. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX (AZFamily) \u2014 Hundreds of people walked from a downtown Phoenix church parking lot to the ICE field…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":543337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[239262,5229,5643,1587,7182,6512,5410,239422,17635,1589,7183,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,37263],"class_list":{"0":"post-543336","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-alex-jeffrey-pretti","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-arizona","11":"tag-az","12":"tag-azfamily","13":"tag-border-patrol-agent","14":"tag-ice","15":"tag-ice-field-office","16":"tag-minneapolis","17":"tag-phoenix","18":"tag-phoenix-news","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa","25":"tag-vigil"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115959595663745096","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}