Pastor Arrested for Defending Himself with a Firearm

[Marine Cpl]

Woodstock, VA — Leon K. McCray Sr., of Woodstock is a retired Air Force veteran and the pastor at Lighthouse Church & Marketplace Ministries International. He has no criminal record. All that has since changed, however, because he made the decision to call police for help when five trespassers threatened to kill him earlier this month.

Virginia: Veteran Pastor Calls 911 & Pulls His Concealed Pistol As 5 People Threaten To Kill Him - Cops Show Up & Arrest Him – The Washington Standard

Woodstock, VA — Leon K. McCray Sr., of Woodstock is a retired Air Force veteran and the pastor at Lighthouse Church & Marketplace Ministries International. He has no criminal record. All that has since changed, however, because he made the decision to call police for help when five trespassers...

thewashingtonstandard.com

Virginia sheriff apologizes after black man's 911 call led to his arrest

A Virginia sheriff has apologized to a black pastor who was arrested this month after calling 911 for help when a white family allegedly threatened and assaulted him after trying

www.richmond.com

 

[carpediem]

It's good the actual criminals got arrested, but his charges need to be dropped. There was no excuse for that stupid charge.

 

[maverick52]

This is disgraceful, I’m glad at least the five losers went to jail.

 

[Acer-m14]

“It was apparent to me that the charge of brandishing was certainly not appropriate. Actually, as I told Mr. McCray, if I were faced with similar circumstances, I would have probably done the same thing,” Sheriff Carter said. “I initiated an immediate review of Mr. McCray’s charge, the remaining persons and potential charges of other persons involved in this incident, and an internal review of the actions or inaction’s of the Sheriff’s Office staff that responded.”

good thing there is no law on brandishing a baseball bat or skateboard .. is a knife in that too ..

 

[GOPerfect]

From the stories posted, I find the arrest to be rather disturbing.

I also find it commendable that the Sheriff took action, Good that the DA dropped charges. Great that the correct people were arrested.

 

[Marine Cpl]

That’s why I like Sheriffs. They are held accountable to the people. Not saying that a Commissioner wouldn’t ever apologize and do the right thing but most appointed Commissioners are scumbags that toe the line for the Governor.

 

[GOPerfect]

That’s why I like Sheriffs. They are held accountable to the people. Not saying that a Commissioner wouldn’t ever apologize and do the right thing but most appointed Commissioners are scumbags that toe the line for the Governor.

Especially in this State.

 

[spat]

“It was apparent to me that the charge of brandishing was certainly not appropriate. Actually, as I told Mr. McCray, if I were faced with similar circumstances, I would have probably done the same thing,” Sheriff Carter said. “I initiated an immediate review of Mr. McCray’s charge, the remaining persons and potential charges of other persons involved in this incident, and an internal review of the actions or inaction’s of the Sheriff’s Office staff that responded.”

good thing there is no law on brandishing a baseball bat or skateboard .. is a knife in that too ..

Good for the sheriff for acknowledging the fault.

 

[libertysnake]

That’s why I like Sheriffs. They are held accountable to the people. Not saying that a Commissioner wouldn’t ever apologize and do the right thing but most appointed Commissioners are scumbags that toe the line for the Governor.

The same is basically true for how the SAFE act is even enforced. It shouldn't even be a policy, period. However, if you look at how often random people not committing criminal acts, beyond the SAFE act violations themselves, are being sought out and even charged... it's very low. It's normally a tacked on charge to something else, but extremely rare on it's own to be brought. I think @Airborneguy mentioned this some time ago, even about NYC.

There were something like one million rifles that they estimated should've been registered assault rifles after the SAFE act went into action. Only something like 40-50k even were registered, and no one is really even hunting down the rest. And didn't Erie county basically say they weren't even going to try to actively seek out people either?

Bottom line is, there isn't a real passion to enforce it upstate because people don't want it. LEO probably understands that, but also doesn't want to lose their jobs actively protesting it either -- so they let it set in the limbo of "not enforced" unless they have something else going on.

Once again, it shouldn't even be this way, period. A lot of us comply anyway with the spur grips and non-folders and whatnot. Still, de-facto, that's what's going on day to day. The local level is silently using LEO discretion to invalidate it, mostly. The local level is really where a lot of this stuff should rest, with the community itself.

 

[spat]

The same is basically true for how the SAFE act is even enforced. It shouldn't even be a policy, period. However, if you look at how often random people not committing criminal acts, beyond the SAFE act violations themselves, are being sought out and even charged... it's very low. It's normally a tacked on charge to something else, but extremely rare on it's own to be brought. I think @Airborneguy mentioned this some time ago, even about NYC.

There were something like one million rifles that they estimated should've been registered assault rifles after the SAFE act went into action. Only something like 40-50k even were registered, and no one is really even hunting down the rest. And didn't Erie county basically say they weren't even going to try to actively seek out people either?

Bottom line is, there isn't a real passion to enforce it upstate because people don't want it. LEO probably understands that, but also doesn't want to lose their jobs actively protesting it either -- so they let it set in the limbo of "not enforced" unless they have something else going on.

Once again, it shouldn't even be this way, period. A lot of us comply anyway with the spur grips and non-folders and whatnot. Still, de-facto, that's what's going on day to day. The local level is silently using LEO discretion to invalidate it, mostly. The local level is really where a lot of this stuff should rest, with the community itself.

The answer is that the gun grabbers play the long game.

The Sullivan act was probably in the same boat upstate at least for the first 20 years or more.

But now, nope.

 

[libertysnake]

The answer is that the gun grabbers play the long game.

The Sullivan act was probably in the same boat upstate at least for the first 20 years or more.

But now, nope.

Not to get too far off topic, but one thing unexpected is changing the libs didn't count on. NYC is going to be going through waves of covid that upstate will see likely in far less numbers. A lot of people just don't want to work in NYC anymore. I know a lot of people who worked in NYC before everyone went remote work wise -- they're all looking for either remote jobs permenantly, or to move to another area. That makes NYC far less attractive to live in.

NYC is going to lose some workforce, and maybe population, from everything going on. Whether that's enough to make the rural areas matter... time will tell.

 

[Blimey]

Not to get too far off topic, but one thing unexpected is changing the libs didn't count on. NYC is going to be going through waves of covid that upstate will see likely in far less numbers. A lot of people just don't want to work in NYC anymore. I know a lot of people who worked in NYC before everyone went remote work wise -- they're all looking for either remote jobs permenantly, or to move to another area. That makes NYC far less attractive to live in.

NYC is going to lose some workforce, and maybe population, from everything going on. Whether that's enough to make the rural areas matter... time will tell.

These people will bring their moral superiority out from the city and just dilute the upstate political concentration of conservtives.

 

[fresch]

These people will bring their moral superiority out from the city and just dilute the upstate political concentration of conservtives.

True, our neighbors across the street when I was growing up had FreshAir kids each summer, a boy my age each time for 5 years in a row, they were big liberal democrats but moved to Colorado because the taxes were too high in N.Y.!
I'm sure they then continued to vote they same way increasing taxes in their new state.

 

[Celt]

From the stories posted, I find the arrest to be rather disturbing.

I also find it commendable that the Sheriff took action, Good that the DA dropped charges. Great that the correct people were arrested.

Id suggest two steps further, if what the article says is true. He should sue for a bad arrest, and cops that arrested him need serious consequences.

 

[@thewheels]

Good for the sheriff but the writer immediately chalks this up to racism and without more facts, I doubt that's the case.

Sure, good for your twitter and FB signaling to blame everything on racism right now but maybe this is just part of their training.
Guy with a gun that pulls it AND doesn't pull the trigger, is going to be in the legal weeds, black, white, purple doesn't matter.
It's stupid but that's the way it is in a lot pf places.
The LE he encountered could be anti gun too. Guns are for me, not for thee types exist in departments all over the country.