Was Alex Pretti fired from nursing job for misconduct? Here's the truth

After 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse Alex Pretti died at the hands of U.S. Border Patrol agents on Jan. 24, 2026, numerous social media users claimed he had been fired from his job over allegations of misconduct. 

The rumor primarily spread on Facebook, where users claimed that Pretti's alleged misconduct ranged from "unwanted contact to invasive, predatory behavior." For example, one post read, in part:

"At the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, patient safety comes first — and every complaint is taken seriously," said Executive Director Dr. Elena Vasquez.

Now, that statement carries chilling weight. Alex Pretti, 37, a former senior ICU nurse, has been accused by patients' families of deeply disturbing, alleged misconduct toward the most vulnerable.

The claims — ranging from unwanted contact to invasive, predatory behavior — were serious enough to trigger his immediate termination and the involvement of authorities.

Numerous Snopes readers also searched the website to verify the story. Some asked whether Pretti was fired from "Lakeshore Medical Center," whereas others asked if he was fired from the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital.

(Facebook user Anchor Desk)

In short, the claim originated from a disreputable artificial intelligence slop website. Pretti did work as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital at the time of his death, as the union representing Minneapolis VA hospital staff confirmed, as did credible reported statements by Pretti's parents, friends, colleagues and patients. However, numerous search engine results uncovered no examples of reputable news outlets reporting on him being fired for misconduct. As such, we have rated this claim false. 

CNN and The New York Times reported that those who knew Pretti believed he had become the target of a smear campaign. Neither outlet directly addressed the false claim about him being fired for misconduct, which began widely circulating after their reports.

The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party shared a statement from Pretti's parents saying they denounced the "sickening lies" President Donald Trump's administration had told about their son. (Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, for example, claimed, without evidence and before DHS began investigating the incident, that Pretti was a "domestic terrorist.") Multiple reputable news media outlets, including The Associated Press, also reported on the statement, which included the line: "Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man."

According to The Minnesota Star Tribune and other reputable outlets, Pretti's sister released a statement saying: "Hearing disgusting lies spread about my brother is absolutely gut-wrenching, and my family is deeply grateful so many people have stood up and helped tell his truth." 

Debunking the rumor

There were numerous indicators that the claim about Pretti being fired for misconduct were false, as outlined below.

Details of claim don't add up 

One popular post featuring the fabricated rumor included an alleged quote from a woman named "Dr. Elena Vasquez," who, it claimed, was the executive director of the Minneapolis VA hospital. Meanwhile, the caption included a link to a webpage that said Vasquez was the executive director of "Lakeshore Medical Center."

No one in the Minneapolis VA hospital's leadership was named Elena Vasquez at the time of publication and a search for any providers with the last name "Vasquez" in the Minnesota VA system also returned no results. 

The only facility named "Lakeshore Medical Center" that appeared in an online search was the McLaren Macomb-Lakeshore Medical Center in a different state — Michigan. Based on its description, it does not appear to have an intensive care unit. The McLaren health care executive team also included no person named Elena Vasquez on staff as of this writing.

David Jones, a spokesperson for McLaren Health Care, confirmed via email that neither Alex Pretti nor an Elena Vasquez has ever been employed at Lakeshore Medical Center.

Snopes also contacted the Minneapolis VA to confirm that the institution does not employ someone named Dr. Elena Vasquez. We will update this article if it replies.

Claim originated from AI slop site

The webpage featured in the Facebook post's caption was a WordPress blog full of advertisements, a typical feature of AI slop websites, as Snopes previously reported. The blog also featured a "Sample Page" showing its creator what to write on the site and recommending the page be deleted. Such pages would not likely appear on authentic news media websites, as Snopes previously reported.

The sample page and a privacy policy section were the only two sections of the site. Meanwhile, the social media icons at the top right of the page did not lead to any social media accounts and every article was "uncategorized," instead of categorized into news, politics and other topics.

Many of the articles on the Wordpress blog also used emojis in headlines and the text of the stories, which can be an indicator of AI-generated text. GPTZero, a tool for detecting AI-generated text, gave the Pretti story a 100% likelihood of being AI-generated. (While these tools are not foolproof, a rating that definitive in favor of AI generation provides additional evidence indicating the webpage was AI slop.)

The story itself also included multiple errors, indicating it was AI-generated. For example, the page read: "Pretti, 42, has not responded to requests for comment." Pretti was 37 at the time of his death, according to numerous reputable news media outlets, and, for obvious reasons, would not be able to respond to a request for comment.

The Wordpress blog claimed in a separate article that Patrick J. Kelly, the actual executive director of the Minneapolis VA hospital, held an impromptu news conference to comment on allegations about Pretti's supposed misconduct. However, a Google search for this supposed news conference returned no results from reputable news outlets — and it would have certainly been newsworthy if it happened. 

Issue with photo in Facebook post and blog site

The Facebook post and the Wordpress webpage both included a photo of a man wearing a pink dress, suggesting it was Pretti.

However, this was not a picture of the late ICU nurse. Instead, it showed what appeared to be a digitally altered image of comedian Ben Taylor from a reality show called Fishtank Live.

The show's X account sarcastically commented on the photo, writing (archived):

Ben bravely stood up to the injustice in Minnesota and paid the ultimate price. He will not be joining us for season 5. Please respect our privacy during this time of grieving.

As fact-checking site Lead Stories first reported, the staircase, door, floormat and doormat in the picture matched a room shown on Fishtank Live (see 5:10). The face of the person in the image visually matched Taylor's Season 2 picture on the Fandom website, a Wikipedia-style source for entertainment content. 

Pretti was employed as ICU nurse at time of death

The union representing VA hospital staff, the American Federation of Government Employees, released a statement "mourning the loss of one of our own" and referring to Pretti as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital, thus confirming he was employed there at the time of his death. 

In Pretti's parents' statement, they called their son a "kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital." 

Friends, colleagues, patients and the loved ones of Pretti's patients also reportedly came forward to share stories about him working at the hospital that were incongruous with the allegations of misconduct; for example, people remembered him as "kind-hearted" and the "best of us." 

Numerous news media outlets also reported stories of several patients who said Pretti treated them just weeks before he was shot, indicating that he was working at the VA hospital at the time of his death.