On January 24, the “pink coat lady” was on her way to a Minneapolis church when she unexpectedly found herself filming what she called the “murder” of Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old ICU nurse who was brutally killed by ICE agents.
Speaking publicly for the first time, Stella Carlson – now known as the “pink coat lady” – shared her first-hand account of what she saw the morning of Jan. 24 when Alex Pretti was shot and killed by U.S. Border Patrol officers.
‘Our civil rights are a joke’
Carslon’s neighborhood, already strained under a heavy federal immigration presence, had been on edge for weeks. The death of Renee Good – killed by ICE officers in early January – had made clear that simply witnessing these encounters could carry risks.
“I think because of the protections that have been given to them, I don’t think (ICE agents) have a reason to feel anything but confident about what they’re doing,” Carlson told CNN’s Anderson Cooper of law enforcement’s aggressive posturing. “It feels like we are a joke that our civil rights are a joke that our constitution is something to be laughed at. That is how they behaved.”
