Edina woman who went viral after Alex Pretti shooting says she saw a community that "stood together"

It was nearly a month ago when Joy Vogt's words touched so many. 

The Edina wife and mother of three said she felt called to go and protest in south Minneapolis after learning that Alex Pretti had been shot and killed by two Border Patrol agents.

"I'm a 55-year-old woman who lives in Edina, and I have to come in here and tell the world, like, we have to change this," Vogt told WCCO's Frankie McLister on that freezing January day.

Her words went viral, reaching tens of millions of people across Facebook, TikTok and Instagram. P!nk and Rosie O'Donnell even reacted to her words.

Vogt said she went to a recent demonstration and met a woman who told her: "I'm out here because of you. If I didn't hear your words I wouldn't be out here."

That interaction left her emotional.

"I do have some regrets about some of the use of my home, like 'posh home.' I live in a pretty average Midwestern home," Vogt reflected. "The point I was trying to make was that I could chose comfort right now and I chose not to."

That day, as outraged crowds gathered in the Whittier neighborhood and chemical irritants seeped through the air, Vogt said she "saw a community that said, 'we won't have this.'"

"We stood together, hugged each other," Vogt said. "We have an obligation to protect our democracy here, so I'm just incredibly grateful."