Does this video show Alex Pretti receiving ‘honor walk’ at Minneapolis VA hospital he worked at?

In January 2026, after Alex Pretti died at the hands of federal immigration officers in Minneapolis, a video (archived) circulated online that claimed to show Pretti’s colleagues at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center honoring the 37-year-old nurse with a farewell ceremony sometimes referred to as an “honor walk.”

The video showed two masked people wheeling a gurney draped in the U.S. flag down a hospital hallway. Other people wearing surgical masks and scrubs, seemingly medical workers, lined the hallway.

One Instagram user who shared the video wrote, “Health professionals from intensive care units gathered to honor Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital who was shot and killed by federal agents.”

The video and claims it showed colleagues paying tribute to Pretti also circulated on Facebook (archived), X (archived), Threads (archived) and Bluesky (archived). International news outlets including TRT (archived) and Al Jazeera (archived) also shared the video and claim. Snopes readers wrote in asking whether it was true that the video showed Pretti’s colleagues paying tribute to him.

However, social media users who claimed the video showed an “honor walk” for Pretti miscaptioned the clip.

A spokesperson for the Minneapolis VA Medical Center said via email that the video, “was not taken at the Minneapolis VA.” Some posts (archived, archived) said the video might show staff at a different VA hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 or 2021. Some details visible in the video appeared to suggest it could be from that time, rather than January 2026.

Online artificial intelligence detectors did not find traces of AI use in screenshots from the video. (Such detectors are not always fully reliable.)

We reached out to several Facebook users who claimed to have worked with Pretti to ask them to confirm whether the video showed colleagues paying tribute to him and await replies to our queries.

Inspecting counterclaim

One Threads user named Alan Smith claimed the video was recorded at the Rocky Mountain VA Medical Center in Aurora, Colorado, in 2021. Smith wrote:

Someone trying to pass this off as Alex Pretti when it was filmed in the Rocky Mountain VA ICU. I work there and it is probably 2021, as everyone is wearing masks and we were still under a mask mandate for COVID.

Snopes reached out to Smith as well as the Rocky Mountain VA center to ask for more background on the claim. 

One geotagged image from Rocky Mountain VA Medical Center showed a similar-looking hallway to that seen in the video, with identical flooring and interior features such as doors, cabinets, wall signage and a two-tiered reception desk. 

(Google Maps/Instagram user @yvettenicolebrown/Snopes Illustration)

According to a map of the medical center, Building H, Floor 3 was the medical center’s intensive care unit. The geo-tagged image showing the similar-looking hallway had signs with room numbers beginning “H3” on the walls, as did the video claiming to show Pretti in Minneapolis.

One of the people pushing the stretcher in the video wore a shirt that read “Intensive Care Unit” on the back, which aligned with the map depicting “H3” as the medical center’s intensive care unit.

Masks, social distancing suggest earlier recording date

According to a Facebook user named Garrett Peterson, colleagues at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center did pay tribute to Pretti with a moment of silence (archived) on Jan. 26, 2026.

An individual with the same name and appearance as Peterson had worked for the VA for 25 years, according (archived) to the Association of Veterans Affairs Nurse Anesthetists. Peterson worked at Minneapolis VA Medical Center at least as recently as 2021, according (archived) to the association, and state records showed he had an active nursing license.

Peterson’s images did not show the flag-covered stretcher seen in the video but did show hospital staff lining a hallway. The staff in the photos did not all appear to wear masks and stood much closer together than the people in the video circulating online.

The purported video of colleagues paying tribute to Pretti showed a blue sticker with white footprints on the ground, suggesting it could have come from a time when hospitals were still using social-distancing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Snopes reached out to Peterson and will update this report if he provides more information.

County medical examiner reportedly held Pretti’s body

According to reporting at the time of the shooting, it appeared unlikely that federal agents or medical staff would have taken Pretti’s body to the VA hospital where he worked.

The Associated Press reported that the Hennepin County Medical Examiner told Pretti’s parents the office held their son’s body after the Jan. 24 shooting. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote on X (archived) on Jan. 25 that a federal investigation into Pretti’s death was ongoing, meaning authorities would likely hold Pretti’s body as part of this work.

The DHS wrote on X that medics pronounced Pretti dead at the scene of the shooting, meaning there was no need for further medical treatment at a hospital. It was unclear whether Pretti would have been eligible for treatment at a VA hospital, should he have needed it.

The DHS said in its statement on X on Jan. 24 that Pretti approached federal agents with a gun and “violently resisted” attempts to disarm him, resulting in an “armed struggle.” Witness video published online appeared to contradict the DHS’ account of events.

Minneapolis police Chief Brian O’Hara said during a news conference on Jan. 24 that Pretti was “a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry.”