Healey, Bristol sheriff call on Noem to resign after immigration agent kills VA nurse

Gov. Maura Healey called on Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign and for federal immigration agents to leave cities like Minneapolis, days after a U.S. Border Patrol officer fatally shot an intensive care nurse there.

Healey’s call for Noem’s resignation comes as a growing number of Republicans and Democrats in Washington press for an impartial and deeper investigation into a Border Patrol agent's fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti on Saturday.

“I really hope Americans take this in and understand the very sad and dangerous moment we've reached in this country. And it's why Kristi Noem has got to go," Healey said Monday afternoon. "ICE has got to get out of these communities now."

Also calling for Noem's resignation is Bristol County Sheriff Paul Heroux, who joins a growing list of law enforcement leaders across the country speaking out against harsh federal immigration enforcement.

Heroux described the lack of investigative oversight in Washington regarding the shootings in Minneapolis as “amateur hour": “ There's just more examples than we can keep up with of ICE engaging in excessive force, violating civil rights,” Heroux told WBUR. “This all hurts law enforcement everywhere, and it hurts who we are as a nation.”

Pretti was killed roughly a mile from where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good earlier this month. Their deaths have sparked large protests against the Trump administration's immigration enforcement surge in Minneapolis.

Noem was quick to cast Pretti as an agitator, alleging that Pretti “approached” immigration officers over the weekend "brandishing" a gun and acting violently.

“An individual approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun. The officers attempted to disarm the suspect but the armed suspect violently resisted. Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, an agent fired defensive shots,” Noem said in a statement.

But video footage captured by bystanders refutes the Department of Homeland Security account of the shooting and instead shows Pretti with his phone filming immigration officers.

He is then pushed by an officer, and multiple agents descend on him before he is shot and killed. Video footage does not show him holding a firearm during the interaction, and instead shows that one agent disarmed Pretti.

Healey said she believes video footage from the shooting shows “somebody who's standing with a cell phone, which, by the way, is a First Amendment-protected right in this country.”

“We saw immediately efforts to smear Alex Pretti," Healey said. "We saw lies, absolute lies. Look at the videos. We saw lies."

Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary with the Department of Homeland Security, said immigration agents are "enforcing the rule of law passed by Congress."

"Once again, Gov. Healey continues to smear law enforcement who are simply enforcing the rule of law and are putting their lives on the line to remove violent criminals from Massachusetts because Maura Healey refuses to work with our law enforcement to arrest these public safety threats," McLaughlin said in a statement to WBUR.

Heroux, the sheriff,  is calling also for the resignation of Gregory Bovino, commander of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Heroux said its agents lack sufficient training, and they need to learn more about the constitutional rights of observers, as well as de-escalation tactics.

“If I saw my officers — whether deputy sheriffs or correctional officers — doing any of the things that ICE is doing, I would be horrified,” Heroux said. “They would be put on administrative leave. An investigation would ensue, and discipline would follow where appropriate.”

While Democratic politicians across the state have denounced the aggressive tactics of ICE and CBP, Heroux is among the first law enforcement chiefs in Massachusetts to do so publicly. In a press release Monday, he faulted the administration for defending the agents involved in the Minneapolis killings, saying the deaths should be investigated before any claims of innocence are made.

Bristol County operated an ICE detention facility in Dartmouth under the prior sheriff. The office was sued by a group of detainees for $10 million over an alleged excessive force incident that happened on the watch of then- Sheriff Thomas Hodgson in 2020. Under Heroux, the case settled for $800,000 in November.

Heroux said his department stopped voluntarily sharing information with ICE after the settlement. “DHS proved to be not a very good partner,” he said.

In a statement released over the weekend, Pretti’s family said they were “heartbroken but also very angry" about false comments regarding Pretti.

“The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs," the family said. "He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper-sprayed."

Materials from The Associated Press were used in this report.