Priest Defends Alex Pretti’s Character: “Remember His Kindness, Ignore the Smears”

Father Harry Tasto spent a decade ministering alongside Alex Pretti at a VA hospital. Now he’s urging the faithful not to believe the “vilification” coming from MAGA officials.

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At the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis, a hush fell as Father Harry Tasto addressed the congregation about Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old ICU nurse killed by federal agents last Sunday.

Tasto had worked with Pretti for ten years as a hospital chaplain, and he spoke from the heart. “He was known for his kindness and gentleness to patients,” the priest said, recalling Pretti’s tender care for ailing veterans.

The priest then delivered a pointed admonition: “Don’t pay any attention to the vilification from our national leaders.”

That vilification had been swift and ugly.

In the hours after Pretti’s death, top Trump administration officials rushed to paint the Catholic nurse as a violent criminal.

They branded him a “domestic terrorist” and even a would-be assassin. Those who actually knew Pretti reject these claims emphatically.

Father Tasto is one of many friends, colleagues, and family members disputing the false narrative spread by powerful figures in Washington.

In the basilica, the priest urged people to remember Pretti as he truly was: a good man devoted to helping others.

A Life Spent Serving Others

Alex Pretti died as he lived: taking care of others.

In fact, moments before he was shot, Pretti was reportedly directing traffic and aiding a bystander at a chaotic protest scene — not menacing anyone. This final act of service caps a lifetime defined by faith and compassion.

A proud Eagle Scout and Catholic, Pretti even earned the “Light of Christ” medal as a Cub Scout in his youth, a recognition of his early devotion to living the Gospel. Those values only deepened with time.

As an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, Pretti was beloved for the care he showed veterans under his watch. He went the extra mile for patients and their families.

A now-viral video shows Pretti at the hospital in 2024, reading a final salute for a dying Vietnam veteran draped in the American flag. “Today we remember that freedom is not free. We have to work for it, nurture it, protect it, and even sacrifice for it,” Pretti says in the video.

That was Alex Pretti in a nutshell — honoring others’ sacrifices and always ready to make his own.

One of Pretti’s patients described the care the late Catholic nurse gave her.

“I had a real bad day and he sat in my room for a little over 20 minutes, holding my hand, talking to me, letting me know things were gonna be OK,” Marta Crownheart said. “He prayed with me and let me know I was gonna be OK.”

Crownheart thought she had had a stroke, then Pretti delivered her good news.

“And when Alex found out I didn’t have a stroke, he came right away and let me know that I didn’t, and he calmed me and he treated me like I was his only patient,” she said. “And I knew I wasn’t, and he treated every vet like they were his only patient.”

Friends and relatives say Pretti’s empathy extended beyond the hospital walls. He was deeply disturbed by injustices he saw in his community, especially the harsh immigration crackdowns under President Trump. Pretti peacefully protested the abuse of migrants and the killing of another Minneapolis resident, Renee Good, by ICE agents earlier in the month.

“He told me about his protest he did because he felt so strongly about how Renee Good had died, and he wanted to make that difference,” Crownheart said. “I remember telling him to be careful, and it’s just been very difficult.”

And now Crownheart joins the masses in caring about what happened to the man who cared for her.

“I think that hurts worse than anything, calling him a domestic terrorist. I think that hurt worse than anything,” she said. “It just broke my heart to see what they did to him, and he did not deserve it.”

“He cared about those people, and he knew it was wrong,” Pretti’s father said of his son’s decision to stand up for the vulnerable.

In every sphere of life — work, community, faith — Alex Pretti strove to “treat others with the utmost dignity and respect,” as one veteran’s family attested. He was, as that family put it, “truly one of the best of us”.

Smeared by Powerful Officials

That is why the campaign to slander Alex Pretti after his death is so grotesque – and why it’s igniting outrage well beyond Catholic circles. Mere hours after Pretti was killed on January 24, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Trump adviser Stephen Miller began pushing a grossly distorted story.

Noem’s DHS issued a press statement suggesting Pretti was an armed agitator who wanted to “massacre” federal agents. Miller eagerly amplified this line. He fired off a tweet calling Pretti “an assassin,” and Vice President JD Vance promptly reposted Miller’s smear to his own followers.

In a press conference, Noem doubled down on the falsehoods — claiming Pretti “reacted violently” and perpetrated “the definition of domestic terrorism,” echoing Miller’s incendiary language.

These claims collapsed almost immediately under the weight of evidence. Bystander videos showed that Pretti never brandished a weapon; he was holding up his phone and shielding a woman from pepper spray when agents tackled him.

Even Minneapolis’ police chief publicly refuted Noem’s account, stating there was no proof Pretti’s handgun was ever drawn. Pretti had a legal permit to carry (a right conservatives usually champion), and his family notes they never knew him to actually carry his firearm.

In short, nothing about Alex Pretti’s behavior that day suggested malice — let alone a “massacre.” The real story is one of overzealous force against an innocent citizen, and lies told to justify the unjustifiable.

Father Tasto called those lies what they are: vilification. Pretti’s grieving family went further, condemning “the sickening lies told about our son by the administration” as “reprehensible and disgusting”.

They have pleaded for the truth to be told: “He was a good man. Please get the truth out about our son.” As that truth comes out, the officials who defamed a dead Good Samaritan are now facing the consequences.

A Moral (and Political) Reckoning

The smear campaign against Alex Pretti is backfiring on its architects. In Washington, there are growing calls for accountability.

Homeland Security Secretary Noem is under intense bipartisan fire — facing an impeachment push in Congress over her handling of the Minneapolis killings. House leaders, including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have given President Trump an ultimatum: fire Noem immediately or Democrats will move to remove her. That effort is expected to gain some Republican support.

Noem’s job is very much on the line, a direct result of her spreading misleading and incendiary misinformation about a man who should still be alive.

Within the White House, Stephen Miller has become a lightning rod. Multiple officials have pointed to Miller as the prime mover behind the false “massacre” narrative, accusing him of seizing on fragmentary reports to push his own draconian agenda.

Even the president’s press secretary refused to endorse Miller’s slander of Pretti as a would-be assassin. For perhaps the first time, the Trump team is splintering under the weight of Miller’s extreme tactics, with aides privately furious that his rush to judgment poured fuel on an already raging fire.

It remains to be seen if Miller will be shown the door, but his standing has undoubtedly fallen. As one source told Axios, “The president loves Stephen,” but this debacle was a rare moment where Trump had to “unf**”* the mess Miller created.

And then there is JD Vance. The vice president joined eagerly in smearing Alex Pretti — just as he did earlier this month when he outrageously blamed the late Renée Good for her own death at ICE’s hands.

Vance will not lose his office over these incidents, but every Catholic in America should take note of his actions. Here is a fellow Catholic who has consistently chosen cruelty, lies, and partisan zeal over truth and basic Christian compassion.

From a faith perspective, JD Vance’s public service to date has been an affront to the values we hold dear. Supporting policies that detain children, slandering the dead to score political points, sowing division and hate — these betrayals of human dignity are antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

While formal efforts to remove officials will likely stop with Noem and Miller, we Catholics have a moral duty to ensure Vance is never elected to office again.

Voting is a moral act. To reward Vance with our votes (or our silence) would be to condone the calumnies and cruelties he has helped perpetrate.

We owe it to the memory of our Catholic brother Alex Pretti — and to the integrity of our witness — to hold Vance accountable when he faces the people.

In the meantime, let’s take Father Tasto’s advice: reject the lies. Remember Alex Pretti as the kind, courageous Catholic he was. And pray for those who would rather demonize a Good Samaritan than admit their own failings.

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