More than 100 people attended a Joliet vigil held Wednesday night for nurse Alex Pretti, who was killed in a confrontation with federal immigration agents in Minneapolis.

“Alex, you persist with us in our hearts and in our minds,” said Doug Kasper with the Nonviolent Cities Project – Joliet, one of the speakers at the vigil held in downtown Joliet on a sidewalk along the Des Plaines River outside of the Joliet Township government offices.

The event was organized by Pat Meade, a member of the Illinois Nurses Association Board of Directors, as a local vigil held at the same time that a larger event was being held in Chicago.

“We have to come together,” Meade told the gathering as she voiced support for a fellow nurse.

Pretti was an intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center.

He was shot multiple times on Saturday as he was filming Border Patrol officers who were conducting an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis.

Those at the Joliet gathering expressed strong positions about what happened to Pretti.

Ron Kennedy of Joliet called Pretti’s death an “assassination.”

The gathering cheered when Kaitlynd French, another local member of the INA board, said that ICE operates “without accountability, transparency or respect for civil rights.”

Joliet Township Supervisor Cesar Guerrero said Pretti’s death “was not the first time that we lost lives” to ICE enforcement actions.

Those at the gathering, which was outside of the Joliet Township government offices, cheered calls for the abolition of ICE.

Pretti’s death is the second fatal shooting this month of a resident in Minneapolis during the border patrol and ICE operation in that city. Renee Good, a 37-year-old woman, was shot by ICE agents while in her car on Jan. 7.

Other elected officials speaking at the vigil were State Rep. Natalie Manley, D-Joliet, and Joliet City Council member Suzanna Ibarra.

“People ask me as a state representative, ‘What are we going to do? What can we do?’” Manley said. “I wish I had the answer.”

Manley and others spoke about the contributions made by nurses and Pretti.

“I’m the daughter of a nurse,” Manley said. “If you know nurses, they have a heart like no one else I know.”

Ibarra choked back tears as she read a statement about nurses and Pretti.

“Thank you to all the nurses worldwide for your unaltering dedication and compassion, and God bless Alex Pretti for his heartfelt efforts in comforting those in need as he died doing this,” Ibarra said.

The Joliet and Chicago vigils were among many held across the country after National Nurses United called for a “week of action” to honor Pretti.

Meanwhile, new video made public as vigils were being held showed Pretti confronting immigration agents in an incident 11 days before he was shot to death.

Pretti is seen with his face at the window of a government vehicle, yelling at agents inside. The vehicle begins to pull away, and Pretti then kicks twice at a taillight and breaks it. Agents pour out of the vehicle and tackle Pretti to the ground.

Video of the incident in which Pretti was shot to death shows him intervening in an encounter between immigration agents and two people before the shooting. A woman was shoved to the ground.

Pretti’s death appears to have led to a reexamination of immigration enforcement activity in Minneapolis.

Tom Homan, the Trump Administration’s so-called “border czar,” is reportedly talking with Minnesota officials about a possible reduction in the number of immigration agents in Minneapolis in exchange for improved state assistance in immigration enforcement.