EXCLUSIVE: One of Alex Pretti’s final ICU patients has shared a deeply emotional memory of the care he provided — describing how he offered comfort, steadiness, and compassion during one of her hardest days, holding her hand and offering reassurance. When she later heard hurtful public labels used about him, her reaction was raw: those words “shattered her heart” because they didn’t match the man she knew — a caregiver who brought calm to people in pain. Her account has become one of the most powerful personal responses in the aftermath of his passing.

One of Alex Pretti’s final ICU patients says terrorism accusations “broke my heart”

Alex Pretti, the man fatally shot Saturday by Border Patrol officers, was a nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital, where he worked with the sickest of the sick in the ICU.

And as his ICU co-workers grieve, so do his patients, like Marta Crownheart.

“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,” 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.”

That gentleness has been seen around the world in a video that shows Pretti honoring a veteran who had just died.

“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,” she 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.”

WCCO also heard for the first time Tuesday from Micayla Pretti, his younger sister, who said in part, “Alex always wanted to make a difference in this world, and it’s devastating that he won’t be here to witness the impact he was making.”