VA investigated staffer who attended vigil for slain colleague Alex Pretti and spoke to media, report says

The Department of Veterans Affairs investigated whether an employee broke agency rules about press interactions after she attended a vigil for Alex Pretti and spoke to the media, according to a report.

Federal immigration agents fatally shot Pretti, a 37-year-old VA nurse, in Minneapolis on Jan. 24. Soon afterward, VA employee Becky Halioua attended a candlelight vigil for him in Augusta, Georgia, and spoke to local outlet WRDW.

The VA investigated whether Halioua violated agency policies about speaking to the press, CNN’s report says. The agency determined Halioua broke the rules because she had not requested permission before agreeing to speak to the media, she told the outlet.

Halioua said she didn’t talk to the VA because she was expressing a personal opinion and wasn’t speaking for the department. She told CNN: “I very strongly believe that I have not violated those policies.”

“The entire event was advertised very clearly as a vigil. It was not an action against the VA, against the government, against any organization. It was an event that was meant to honor the life of someone who had been killed,” she said.

Halioua also serves as president of a local chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees. Thomas Dargon, the union’s deputy general counsel, told CNN that Halioua exercised her First Amendment rights at the memorial event and that her actions were in line with the rules.

The VA has investigated three additional employees over media interactions, including one regarding Pretti, according to the report.

The Independent has reached out to Halioua through her union for comment. The VA declined to comment, citing privacy laws that prohibit the agency from discussing specific details about employees without their written permission.

Pretti was an ICU nurse who worked for the Minneapolis VA Health Care System. He was killed just weeks after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother and poet, in the same city. Their killings sparked unrest and protests nationwide.

Pretti was “very upset” with the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, his father told the Associated Press.

“He cared about people deeply and he was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the United States with ICE, as millions of other people are upset,” Michael Pretti said in January.

“He thought it was terrible, you know, kidnapping children, just grabbing people off the street. He cared about those people, and he knew it was wrong, so he did participate in protests,” he added.