The pediatrician’s account cuts through official language and brings the moment into brutal focus: a trained doctor, meters away from a dying man, initially held back while agents hesitated over credentials instead of compressions. When they finally reached Alex Pretti, turning him onto his back revealed more extensive wounds, and the absence of a pulse confirmed what the stillness had already suggested. CPR became an act of duty and desperation rather than hope.
In the days since, the story has become larger than a single shooting. A citizen nurse killed by federal agents, a neighbor-doctor traumatized, tear gas drifting into homes, and a community left to wonder whether help was withheld when seconds mattered most. As investigations unfold, the questions now extend beyond who fired and why, to something more haunting: in that critical window after the shots, did the system even try to save his life?
