Miami Beach man threatened to ‘shoot’ FBI agents in emails, Twitter posts, feds say
For more than a decade, Joe Nathan Pyatt Jr. has had a string of run-ins with the law, from trespassing to drug possession to firearms violations.
But now the Miami Beach man has landed in a federal lock-up without bail for making a series of email and Twitter threats to kill FBI agents.
On March 24, Pyatt posted the threat “Stay the f--- out of my life before I start shooting at you!” on the bureau’s Twitter account, @FBIMiamiFL. The next day, around 7:30 a.m., he showed up at the FBI Field Office in Miramar and asked to speak to someone and use the restroom, but he was not allowed into the building. Pyatt returned to his car, where agents questioned him about his threatening email before arresting him.
On Thursday, Pyatt, 34, pleaded not guilty to an indictment accusing him of making two threatening communications along with cyber harassment in Miami federal court.
Pyatt appeared on the FBI’s radar in February 2021 when he sent the first of several emails to the FBI’s regional office, according to the indictment and other court records. “I’ll die fighting against you if I have to,” one read. “I will shoot at you and any agent when I do my open carry protest and you try to apply the rule of law!”
In November of last year, Pyatt met twice with FBI agents to discuss his trail of threatening emails and Twitter posts, including one that read: “@FBI I swear on my soul I’m taking you f---ing pieces of s--- out. ... You are an enemy.”
For the first meeting, Pyatt agreed to a voluntary interview. For the second meeting, he just showed up at the bureau’s field office in Miramar.
Pyatt acknowledged writing the emails and Twitter posts, according to an FBI criminal affidavit. But mainly, he expressed frustration that the FBI had not followed up on his allegations that he “was a victim of sex trafficking orchestrated by the mob and that his son and son’s mother had been kidnapped by a Latin King [gang],” the affidavit says. The FBI checked out the kidnapping allegation with the mother, who “produced no evidence” to support his claim.
Since those November meetings, Pyatt went on another tear with his email threats addressed to Miami@FBI.gov, accusing agents of failing to investigate his claims.
“It’s just a bunch of cowards that I’m dealing with that have a death wish,” Pyatt wrote in a March 9, 2022, email to the FBI. “Trust me I’m developing a passion to deal with it.”
After sending several more emails, Pyatt posted a threat on the bureau’s Twitter account, saying he was going to “start shooting at you!” The post was recorded on March 24, 2022, by the FBI’s Office of Public Affairs and reported to agents, the affidavit says. The next morning, Pyatt showed up without an appointment at the bureau’s field office in Miramar.
“When [agents] read Pyatt the text of the threatening communication posted on March 24, 2022, Pyatt stated he did not want to talk about this subject,” according to the affidavit.
Pyatt’s hostile cyber behavior towards the FBI is not the first time he has been accused of threatening law enforcement. In 2020, he was charged with threatening to kill a member of the Miami Beach Police Department and his family. That year, he was also charged with carrying a concealed weapon.
Earlier this month, both pending state charges compelled a federal magistrate judge to detain Pyatt in the FBI case, saying he is a danger to the community. Pyatt is represented by the Federal Public Defender’s Office, which could not be reached for comment.
This story was originally published April 14, 2022 at 3:12 PM.
