On the morning of January 24, Stella Carlson donned her signature pink coat and set out for a local church, intending to spend her day painting the faces of children. She never reached her destination. Instead, she became the primary witness to what she now unequivocally describes as the “assassination” of Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old ICU nurse shot and killed by federal agents in the middle of a Minneapolis street.
Speaking publicly for the first time, Carlson—known globally as the “pink coat lady” after her footage went viral—provided a harrowing, firsthand account of the moments leading up to Pretti’s death. Her testimony, shared with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, offers a visceral counter-narrative to the official reports issued by Washington in the wake of the shooting.
A Neighborhood Under Siege
For Carlson and her neighbors, the presence of federal immigration enforcement had become a source of constant, vibrating tension. The neighborhood was already mourning Renee Good, who was killed by ICE officers earlier in January. That tragedy, Carlson says, stripped away any illusion of safety for bystanders.
“I think because of the protections that have been given to them, I don’t think [ICE agents] have a reason to feel anything but confident about what they’re doing,” Carlson said, describing the aggressive posturing of law enforcement. “It feels like we are a joke, that our civil rights are a joke, that our Constitution is something to be laughed at. That is how they behaved.”
In response to the “swarming” tactics of federal agents, the community developed a primitive but poignant alarm system: whistles. Carlson now wears one every time she leaves her house—a tool of both warning and solidarity.
“I know every time I leave my vehicle or leave my house, and I put that whistle around my neck, I know because of Renee Good, the risk,” she explained. “I’m another person walking around who is here to protect you as best I can with my whistle and my phone, which really feels not great.”
The Encounter on Nicollet Avenue
The peace of that Saturday morning was shattered as Carlson drove down Nicollet Avenue, less than two miles from the site of Renee Good’s death. The sound of whistles began to pierce through the traffic noise.
“A caravan of vehicles, ICE agents,” Carlson recalled, “were moving in.”
She watched as agents tackled a pedestrian while another officer began “punching the windows” of a vehicle nearby. Paralyzed by the unfolding chaos, Carlson made eye contact with a man directing traffic away from the fray. It was Alex Pretti.
“I looked at Alex, he looked at me, and he pointed to the parking spot, and I was like, ‘Okay, just park,’” Carlson said. She exited her vehicle and immediately began filming. She didn’t know Pretti’s name, nor did she know he was a licensed gun owner carrying a concealed weapon. She saw only a man attempting to de-escalate a volatile situation.
“I was his backup,” she said.
‘He Was Calm’
Carlson described Pretti’s demeanor as remarkably steady despite the surrounding violence. As an ICU nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital, Pretti appeared to be performing a professional “risk assessment,” according to Carlson.
“What I did know at the time is that [Pretti] was calm and was handling it with grace and consistency, and definitely without threat,” she recalled.
The recording, taken from a distance of five to ten feet, shows Pretti helping a woman who had been shoved to the pavement. Within seconds, federal officers swarmed him, knocking him to the ground. Carlson watched as an agent drew his sidearm. Then, the shots rang out. Pretti was struck multiple times, including in the back.
‘Like He’s a Deer’
The aftermath of the shooting was, for Carlson, as traumatic as the act itself. Having witnessed death in hospice settings, she recognized the signs of a terminal injury immediately.
“I watched him die,” she said, her voice breaking. “I remember him arching his back and his head rolling back, and it was so fast-moving—but not for me.”
She described the ensuing medical aid provided by the agents as clinical and dehumanizing. After “ripping his clothes open with scissors” and “maneuvering his body around like a rag doll,” Carlson alleged the agents appeared focused on the mechanics of the kill rather than the life of the victim.
“It could be because they wanted to count the bullet wounds to see how many they got, like he’s a deer,” she said.
Contradicting the Official Narrative
Carlson’s footage has become a pivotal piece of evidence, directly challenging the rhetoric coming out of the nation’s capital. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem initially asserted that Pretti had “brandished” a weapon, while White House Advisor Stephen Miller labeled the veteran-serving nurse a “would-be assassin.”
Carlson’s video shows no such brandishing. She maintains that she didn’t even realize Pretti was armed until later. To her, the only assassination that occurred that day was the one she caught on camera.
“It was an assassination, in full view, in the middle of the streets, of somebody who has served our country and continued to at the Veterans hospital,” Carlson told Cooper. “Nobody should have to worry about being assassinated in their streets, especially in America.”
“Did I think I was going to be filming a murder? No. An assassination? No,” Stella Carlson remarked, her voice underscoring the gravity of a morning that shifted from a routine commute to a historic documentation of state violence.
For Carlson, the decision to press “record” was not born of professional obligation, but of a split-second moral imperative. As the footage she captured went viral, it did more than just circulate on social media; it dismantled the carefully constructed narrative of the Trump administration. The public outcry sparked by the video was so intense that it led to the direct removal of Gregory Bovino, the high-ranking Border Patrol official who had been overseeing the heavily militarized immigration operations across the city of Minneapolis.
The Weight of the Moment
Carlson’s conversation with CNN’s Anderson Cooper touched on the psychological burden of being the one to hold the camera when the stakes are life and death.
“I knew that this was a moment, and we all have to be brave, and we all have to take risks, and we’re all going to be given moments to make that decision,” Carlson said. Her words reflect a growing sentiment in a city where citizens have increasingly felt forced to act as their own oversight committee in the face of federal enforcement.
The risks of staying on that street corner were high, but Carlson remains resolute in her choice. “I’m grateful to myself and I’m grateful to anybody who was supportive to me after, to make sure I could get to safety and get that video uploaded to the right people,” she added.
Beyond Interpretation
In an era of “alternative facts,” Carlson’s decision to remain at the scene ensured that the killing of Alex Pretti was not left to the interpretations of government spokespeople or carefully worded press releases. By capturing the visual and auditory reality of the encounter, she provided a primary source for a moment that has become one of the most consequential in recent memory. It was seen, it was heard, and because of her, it cannot be ignored.
The incident raises profound questions about the limits of federal authority and the escalation of force on American streets.
