A Visual Taste

A scene from Keeper of the Flame, 1942.

Rachel Hurley 

I’ve watched all of the videos dozens of times - here’s what happened.

A 37-year-old ICU nurse named Alex Pretti helped a woman that federal agents had shoved. For this crime - helping someone - several agents sprayed pepper spray into his face - then they beat him until he collapsed. They pistol whipped him while he was on his knees. Both hands on the ground. Not resisting. Just existing.

They took his gun from his back waistband - he never touched it - but he had a legal permit to carry. The Second Amendment one. The constitutional right one.

And then they shot him.

After he was already down, already gone, they shot him nine more times. Nine. I want you to picture that. A man on the ground, motionless, and nine more bullets.

This is the same government that told us he was a “criminal illegal alien with a string of violent offenses.” He was an American citizen. He was a nurse who worked in the ICU at the VA - the guy who takes care of your grandfather who served in Vietnam, your uncle who came back from Iraq. His criminal record was traffic tickets.

They lied. They executed him in broad daylight on an American street. And then they lied about who he was to make you feel okay about it.

This is the third shooting by federal agents in Minneapolis in three weeks. Three weeks. Three people. One was a woman named Renée Good. One was a Venezuelan man shot in the leg. And now Alex Pretti, American citizen, legal gun owner, VA nurse who spent his days caring for veterans, dead on the pavement at 26th and Nicollet because he tried to help someone.

The same government that wraps itself in “support our troops” shot the guy who actually supported our troops. Nine times. While he was on the ground.