Live updates: Minneapolis residents challenge local and state leaders at CNN town hall

Braving frigid temperatures and snow drifts outside the Washington, DC, headquarters of the Department of Veterans Affairs, hundreds of people gathered for a vigil tonight to pay tribute to Alex Pretti, the VA nurse who was shot and killed Saturday by Customs and Border Protection agents in Minneapolis.

The event, organized by more than two dozen labor unions and other groups, featured prayers, speeches and anti-ICE chants.

Daniel Amyx, a colleague of Pretti’s at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, addressed the crowd. No longer able to hold back tears, he said, “Alex Pretti has been relieved. Those of you standing here are the next shift. We need to get that work done!”

Amyx told CNN he made the trip to Washington to call for justice for Pretti and to help “end this struggle we’re in.” Amyx said many of the nurses at that VA hospital wore black scrubs to work on Monday, two days after the shooting, and he described a “walk of honor” set up for Pretti in a hallway of the hospital.

“As a fellow civil servant myself, I think this is a call to action for all of us,” said Peter Grills, one of the event’s organizers and a federal employee, who asked that the agency where he worked not be named.

Many who gathered held lit candles to honor Pretti, and a makeshift memorial was constructed on top of an outdoor planter, featuring lit candles surrounding a portrait of Pretti. People held signs reading “Crush ICE,” “Snow is wonderful but ICE sucks!” and “Freeze all ICE raids now.”