Hundreds gather to mourn Alex Pretti at candlelight vigil

Hundreds gathered at Eugene’s federal building at dusk Tuesday, Jan. 27 for a candlelight vigil to honor Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old Department of Veterans Affairs hospital nurse who was shot and killed by federal agents on Saturday in Minneapolis.

The vigil at 5 p.m., organized by the Oregon Nurses Association, came on the heels of altercations earlier in the day between demonstrators outside the building and federal agents, who deployed pepper spray, fired pepper bombs and detained multiple people. 

Organizers set up rows of candles on the steps of the plaza outside the Eugene Federal Building on Seventh Avenue and Pearl Street, which houses an office for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies. 

Nurses wearing green hats and carrying a Nurses Association banner stood above the candles, the flickering light illuminating a portrait of Pretti and flowers placed at their feet. A man played taps on his trumpet to begin the vigil.

“We all know Alex and Renee,” Christopher Rampala, an operating room nurse in Springfield and a member-at-large of the Oregon Nurses Association, told the crowd, choking back tears. “They’re the co-workers who volunteer to cover the hardest shifts. The friend who always answers their phone, and the neighbor always looking out for others in need. It isn’t just what they did, it’s who they were.”

Car horns blared as he spoke, honks from passing cars to show solidarity with the vigil. Demonstrators who had gathered deeper into the plaza by the entrance of the federal building to monitor ongoing altercations between agents and protesters at times shouted and chanted.

Rampala gave the mic to state Rep. Lisa Fragala, who represents parts of Lane County. She said federal agents “executed” Pretti, and called for an immediate end to federal immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis and other communities. 

“Alex’s commitment to caring and service didn’t stop at the walls of the VA hospital,” she said. “He carried that through his daily life, and this is something I find to be true about so many nurses.”

She described Pretti’s character through the words of his loved ones, including “gentle” and “kind-hearted.” She went on to describe how nurses cared for her when she was battling breast cancer, and stopped for a round of applause for all nurses in the audience.

 Eugene Mayor Kaarin Knudson also spoke, urging the crowd to not be distracted by the federal government’s “division and hatred” and instead to stand together as a community. 

“While we as a community might be heartbroken by these actions and by the horrors that we are seeing across our country, our spirit is not broken,” she said. “We stand together, and we will come through this time, and we will walk this path into the future, and we will be stronger on the other side.”

State Sen. James Manning was at the front of the crowd gathered for the vigil, telling Lookout that federal agents were attempting to rile up protesters to further a narrative that demonstrators in Eugene are not peaceful. He added that his youngest sister is a nurse, and voiced his support for the nurses’ union. 

“We have a convicted felon in the White House,” he said. “So we’re talking criminality at the highest level, which means that it comes down to the people that are on the ground. It’s a sad day for America, and it’s getting worse.”