At dusk and under the cover of rain, Corvallis healthcare workers and residents alike gathered in solidarity with Minneapolis, Minnesota on the steps of the Benton County Courthouse.
Holding various candles, brought from home or given out, they held a vigil in honor of the nine lives who had been killed by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers this month.
Among those who were lost is Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs who was shot 10 times and killed by ICE on Jan. 24.
Esther Kim, a local healthcare worker and a community leader with Indivisible Benton County, an organization that organized this vigil, addressed the crowd.
“This is a really heavy time. A really scary time for all of us … for anyone who lives in America … That’s what Alex Pretti showed us.”
Kim, as a community leader with Indivisible Benton County, helps organize and participate in local mutual aid and protests, striving to bring together the greater Corvallis community.
“The execution of Alex Pretti, as a fellow healthcare worker, was disturbing, was horrifying and we felt that we needed to do something. Not just for him but for all of the others,” Kim said.
After addressing the crowd, Kim read the poem “First They Came” by Pastor Martin Niemöller, then passed the spotlight to Tyler McCarty, a registered nurse and chairperson for Oregon Nurses Association at Good Samaritan.
Holding a portrait of Alex Pretti, McCarty spoke on the courthouse steps.
“I am here in my scrubs because this is what’s important to me, my union and the nurses of this community. What we witnessed was murder, we saw a nurse shot in the back while lying on the ground, 10 times. A nurse (whose) last words were ‘Are you okay?’ to a woman he was trying to protect.”
McCarty continued, “They called him a terrorist, they said he wanted to butcher ICE agents, that tells me the most radical thing we can do is to care for and protect one another. So that’s all I’m asking you, as a nurse in this community I will care for and protect any of you and I just want you to do the same.”
McCarty then opened up the steps to whoever felt compelled to speak, welcoming Joe Harrity, an Oregon State University Alum who was born and raised in Minneapolis.
Harrity in his speech shared, “I have a lot of friends who are out there day and night, blowing their whistles, they’ve got frost on their eyes because of how cold it is. Day in and day out they are supporting their neighbors and a lot of them aren’t sure how much of the country is standing with them. So on behalf of the city of Minneapolis, the state of Minnesota, I extend a huge gratitude to everybody. We’re all in it together.”
As someone who is far from home in Corvallis, Harrity expressed how “disorienting” and “odd” it was to be away from the “front lines” and unable to help his loved ones.
“The upside to be(ing) outside it (is) that I can reassure everyone there that they’re not in it alone, that they’ve got support even in a rural college town,” Harrity said.
As the speeches ceased, the vigil carried on into the evening as people continued to light candles, talk among themselves, shed tears and sing songs in mourning of those who were lost.
You can read Alex Pretti’s parents’ statement, which was read during the vigil at Minnesota DFL Party’s Facebook.