Family of Alex Pretti retains lawyers who helped prosecute the George Floyd case

The parents of Alex Pretti have retained a former federal prosecutor who helped Minnesota’s attorney general convict the police officer who kneeled on George Floyd’s neck of murder.

Pretti, an intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, was shot multiple times on Saturday as he was filming Border Patrol officers conducting an immigration enforcement operation.

Steve Schleicher, a partner at the Minneapolis firm Maslon, is an experienced litigator who served as a special prosecutor for Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison in the 2021 trial of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

Prior to entering private practice, Schleicher served as a state prosecutor and worked for 13 years in the office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota, handling cases ranging from murder to organized crime, racketeering and federal civil rights violations, according to an online resume. He also served as a reserve officer in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps.

Schleicher is representing Michael and Susan Pretti pro bono, according to a family spokesman.

Pretti’s younger sister, Micayla Pretti, has separately hired attorney Anthony Cotton of Kuchler & Cotton in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The lawyers were retained to “protect the family’s interest in the aftermath of this horrific tragedy,” the spokesman said.

Pretti, 37, was carrying a handgun for which he had a legal permit and videos of the killing appear to show one officer remove the weapon before two others opened fire.

Pretti's death followed the Jan. 7 death of Minneapolis resident Renee Good, a mother of three shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. Good's family has hired the Chicago-based firm Romanucci & Blandin, which previously represented Floyd ’s family.

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Biesecker reported from Washington.