In the grainy January footage, Alex Pretti is not a headline or a hashtag. He’s a furious man in the cold, spitting at a federal vehicle, kicking out a taillight, then slammed to the ground as gas and pepper balls scatter a crowd. A gun sits holstered behind his back, visible but untouched, as he shouts after agents disappearing into a haze they created. Eleven days later, another confrontation ends with the 37‑year‑old ICU nurse shot dead by a US Border Patrol officer, his body searched, a weapon reportedly found, and an official narrative already forming around him.

In the days that follow, his life is pulled apart on national television. Some call him a “would‑be assassin,” others a “peaceful protester.” His family insists he was neither villain nor saint, just a kind, complicated man who showed up after Renee Good’s killing and refused to look away. Now, as investigators comb through video and ballistics, the most haunting image is not the moment of his death, but the space between both encounters: those eleven days when Alex Pretti was still alive, unaware of how completely strangers would one day claim his story.