More than 100 people gathered in front of the gates of Durham’s Veterans Affairs Medical Center Wednesday night for a candlelit vigil honoring Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old VA nurse who was shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday.
Clutching tealights and bouquets of flowers, attendees formed a line down the sidewalk that stretched so far from the main gate, different sections of the crowd took on different purposes—those near the front listened to speeches while those further back, out of earshot, sang songs of solidarity.
Many held signs. One that read “Stop lying, nurses can spot a fib” nodded to both the contested official narrative of Pretti’s death and to AFib, the cardiac arrhythmia that nurses routinely detect.
Pretti worked as an intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System. On January 24, he was pepper-sprayed and fatally shot by federal immigration agents after filming the agents with his phone and attempting to help a protester whom agents had knocked to the pavement.
Nurses, union workers, and community members held candles and sang songs of solidarity during a vigil for Alex Pretti in Durham. Credit: Photo by Jenny Warburg 
More than 100 people gathered in front of Durham’s Veterans Affairs Medical Center On January 28, 2026, to honor Alex Pretti. Credit: Photo by Lena Geller 
Union members, including the Union of Southern Service Workers, joined a vigil honoring VA nurse Alex Pretti, who was killed by immigration enforcement in Minneapolis. Credit: Photo by Jenny Warburg 
National Nurses United has called for ICE to be abolished, saying agents pose a public health threat. Credit: Photo by Jenny Warburg
“The fact that he was a nurse is really meaningful,” Libby Manly, a nurse at the Durham VA, told the INDY. “He was a healing person. He was trying to protect a woman who had just violently been shoved to the ground.”
Pretti’s murder comes amid an already turbulent period for VA nurses. Since Trump took office last year, the VA has shed tens of thousands of employees, leaving nurses who remain stretched thin. In Durham, that has resulted in VA employees conducting telehealth visits from broom closets and passing out meal trays on top of their regular patient duties, the INDY previously reported.
The Durham vigil was one of dozens held across the country this week as part of a large-scale action organized by the labor union National Nurses United. The union has said that ICE poses a public health threat (ICE agents have shot more than a dozen people since September) and demanded that the agency be abolished.
The crowd in Durham included cohorts from various local union chapters. Many of the speeches highlighted the fact that Pretti was a union member—and that labor fights and immigrant rights are intertwined.
“They want us to think immigration is a separate issue from labor,” said Terrence Dewberry, president of the Triangle Area Labor Council. “But Alex showed them that we are the same fight.”
Before the vigil ended, organizers encouraged attendees to turn to someone they didn’t know, look them in the eye, and say, “Come for one, face us all. I’ve got your back.”
Manly said it felt nice to be surrounded by other people.
“You can doomscroll all day and read all the terrible news and post about it on your social media, but to actually be with other people who are also upset and who are feeling the same rage—it’s just so impactful,” she said.
Comment on this story at [email protected].