'Always eager to help': Childhood friends remember Alex Pretti as memorial grows outside Green Bay's Preble HS
CBS 58 GREEN BAY, Wis. (CBS 58) -- We're learning more about the man shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Saturday, Jan. 24.
Alex Pretti, 37, graduated from Preble High School in Green Bay. His childhood friends are mourning as an investigation into his death is underway.
Outside Preble High School, a memorial is growing for Pretti.
Memorial grows for Alex Pretti outside Preble High School in Green Bay, Wisconsin
"This brings what was already a close-to-home problem even closer to home," said Travis Vanden Heuvel, Pretti's childhood friend.
Memorial grows for Alex Pretti outside Preble High School in Green Bay, Wisconsin
Travis Vanden Heuvel said Pretti was the type of kid who lived in harmony with others, especially in the Green Bay choir where they met.
"He had a smile that could light up a room, and he was someone that was always very joyful," said Vanden Heuvel.
Yearbook photos show the 2006 Preble High School graduate who met Chris Di Salvi.
"He was a really funny guy. He didn't take himself too seriously," said Di Salvi.
Both friends said Pretti would continue to find ways to serve others -- eventually as a nurse.
"It was not surprising and somewhat fulfilling to learn that later on in life he would go on to serve in a profession where all of the things that I knew and remembered about him from our childhood would come to life," Vanden Heuvel said.
While a memorial outside the high school continues to grow, Vanden Heuvel is disappointed by the Trump administration’s portrayal of Pretti.
"The thing that is most disheartening and frankly infuriating about this situation is how this administration continues to try to assassinate Alex's character," Vanden Heuve said.
As Pretti's shocking and sudden death hits the Green Bay community, his childhood friend from choir will continue to sing his praises.
“He was someone who was always eager to help, he was a very kind kid, he had a personality and a spirit that was just very infectious, and people wanted to be around him,” Vanden Heuvel said.
