1. United States
2. Wyo.
3. Letter

I am writing to you today as a constituent and a fellow Wyomingite to demand that you break your silence regarding the horrific killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis this past Saturday. We look to you to champion the Constitution and stand against the weaponization of the federal government. However, on January 24, we witnessed the ultimate act of federal overreach: the extrajudicial execution of an American citizen for exercising the very rights you have sworn to protect. Alex Pretti was an ICU nurse who served our nation’s veterans at a VA hospital. He was a U.S. citizen. On the day he was killed, he was exercising his First Amendment right to film public officials and his Second Amendment right to lawfully bear arms. The video evidence is undeniable and harrowing. It shows Mr. Pretti stepping in to assist a woman who had been shoved to the ground. For this act of compassion, he was pepper-sprayed, tackled, and pinned to the pavement by federal agents. The footage indicates he was subdued and disarmed of his concealed weapon—which he never brandished—mere seconds before agents fired multiple rounds into his body. This was not a shootout. This was a summary execution of a subdued, disarmed citizen. If a lawful gun owner can be gunned down by federal agents while pinned to the ground, simply for possessing a firearm he is licensed to carry, then the Second Amendment is a hollow promise. If a citizen can be killed for observing federal agents, the First Amendment is dead. I am asking you to: 1. Publicly and unequivocally disavow this killing. Do not wait for the news cycle to move on. State clearly that the extrajudicial killing of American citizens by federal agents is unacceptable. 2. Demand an independent investigation. We cannot trust the agencies involved to investigate themselves. 3. Call for the immediate suspension of the agents involved pending the result of that investigation. You have built your reputation on fighting federal overreach. There is no greater overreach than the state taking a life without due process. Please show the courage to stand up for Alex Pretti and the Constitution.