Alex Pretti is dead

by Stuart McFarlane / February 1st, 2026

Another fatal shooting
on a Minneapolis street.
A protester – the government
favours the term ‘agitator’ –
is accosted by ICE agents.
We can all see the video.
Only the government, again,
tell us that we cannot.
That what we see is not, in fact,
what we think we see.
What we see is a scrum of ICE agents,
five or six, maybe more,
who wrestle a man to the ground.
His name, we later learn,
is Alex Pretti.
He is a male nurse.
He has a concealed gun, legally owned.
He does not brandish the weapon.
We can see this clearly in the video.
In his hand there is only a cell phone.
There is chaos on the street;
a by-stander screaming nearby.
We hear the word ‘Gun’ ring out.
The ICE agents scatter.
There is the crack of a gunshot.
Then another. Then another.
We lose count of how many shots.
Only later do we find out that
there are ten shots fired in five seconds.
Ten shots. Ten bullets. Ten times.
ICE agents say that they shoot
for their own self protection.
Yet they shoot him only after they take his gun.
He lies, defenceless, on the street.
It’s hard to see how he now poses a threat.
They shoot him, all the same.
They fire their guns. Again and again.
They fire their guns ten times.
Ten shots. Ten bullets. Ten times.
Minutes ago Alex Pretti was alive.
And now Alex Pretti is dead.

Stuart McFarlane has spent many years, both abroad and in the UK, teaching English. In the UK this mainly involved teaching Esol to refugees and asylum seekers. He is now semi-retired and so can devote more time to writing poetry. He has had poems published in local magazines and online publications such as 'Borderless Journal', based in Malaysia and 'Culture Matters' and 'The Recusant', based in the UK. Read other articles by Stuart.

This article was posted on Sunday, February 1st, 2026 at 8:00am and is filed under Poetry.