A photograph of 37-year-old Alex Pretti can be seen at a makeshift memorial in the area where he was shot dead by federal immigration agents earlier in the day in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Jan. 24, 2026. (Roberto Schmidt – AFP / Getty Images)
By Mariane Angela February 1, 2026 at 8:00am
Days following Alex Pretti’s death, his family hired high-profile attorneys with direct ties to the prosecution of Derek Chauvin in the George Floyd case.
The parents of the 37-year-old intensive care nurse retained Steve Schleicher, a veteran litigator and former federal prosecutor. Schleicher helped Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison convict former police officer Chauvin for the death of Floyd.
Schleicher, now a partner at the Minneapolis law firm Maslon, is representing Michael and Susan Pretti pro bono, a family spokesman confirmed, as reported by Newsweek.
Schleicher spent more than a decade in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota, where he handled cases ranging from murder to civil rights violations, and also served as a special prosecutor during the Chauvin trial. Before entering private practice, he acted as a state prosecutor and served as a reserve officer in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps.
Separately, Pretti’s younger sister, Micayla Pretti, hired attorney Anthony Cotton of the Milwaukee firm Kuchler & Cotton, the family said, as reported by the Associated Press. A family spokesman said the attorneys were brought in to “protect the family’s interests in the aftermath of this horrific tragedy.”
Border Patrol agents shot and killed 37-year-old Pretti on Saturday during a confrontation as they carried out a targeted enforcement operation in Minneapolis. Following the incident, members of President Donald Trump’s administration accused Pretti of being a domestic terrorist, an accusation Trump rejected when asked, saying he had not heard those claims and would not endorse them.
“Well I haven’t heard that. But certainly he shouldn’t have been carrying a gun. And look, bottom line, everybody in this room, we view that as a very unfortunate incident, okay? Everyone, unless you’re a stupid person. Very, very unfortunate incident,” Trump said.
Meanwhile, the family of Renee Good, another Minneapolis resident fatally shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in early January, also retained high-profile legal representation. Good’s family hired the Chicago-based firm Romanucci & Blandin — the same team that represented Floyd’s family in their civil case — to investigate the circumstances of her death and pursue accountability.
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