A black church pastor from Virginia has
said that he was arrested after calling 911
to report that five white individuals were
verbally and physically attacking him.
Pastor Leon McCray of Lighthouse Church
and Marketplace Ministries International in
Woodstock has said that he was forced to
brandish a gun to scare off the attackers,
who set upon him after he tried to prevent
them from dumping waste on his property.
However, to his shock the police officers
who arrived at the incident, placed him
under arrest.
Shenandoah County Sheriff Timothy Carter
has since issued an apology to the pastor
for his arrest, and has confirmed that the
five people involved in the attack had now
been arrested. There were three male and
two female suspects.
In addition, two department supervisors
have now been placed on unpaid
administrative leave pending a full review
of the incident.
Pastor McCray spoke about his experience
during his online sermon broadcast,
saying: “Very traumatic experience. I don’t
know if you have ever been through
anything like that. I never have. Very
trying.”
He described the ordeal, which began
earlier this month when he witnessed two
people trying to dump a large refrigerator
on his property. He stepped forward and
asked them to stop, however, the men
turned on him with one immediately
starting to verbally attack him, while the
other went to call their three other friends.
Pastor McCray said, “I informed these
individuals that they were trespassing and
that they couldn’t dump their refrigerator
on my property, and I asked them to leave.
They became irate and verbally attacked
me.”
He explained that “these same individuals
were threatening my life, telling me that my
black life, and black lives matter stuff”
were not welcome in the town.
“Being threatened and being in fear for my
life, I took and felt compelled to pull my
concealed weapon — legal concealed
weapon — to save my life. And when I did
that, finally, these individuals backed up
long enough for me to call 911,” he said.
However, when he called 911, the operator
did not seem interested in the threats or
whether he was ok, but focused their
attention only on the person with the gun.
The pastor pleaded with the operator to
send help.
Soon after, about 10 police officers arrived
at the scene, and immediately confiscated
the pastor’s gun. They went and spoke to
the five individuals who had been
threatening him.
He described: “They went and talked to
them. They were still hollering racial
epithets. They were still threatening my
life. They were still telling me what they
were going to do to me.”
“What did the sheriff do?” the pastor
asked. “I was really never given the
opportunity to tell what was going on.”
Following their chat with the five
trespassers, the police immediately
returned to the pastor and arrested him in
front of his attackers.
Pastor McCray was released from custody
later that same night, however, it wasn’t
until two days later that he finally had the
opportunity to sit down and report what
had happened with Shenandoah County
Sheriff Timothy Carter.
A review was then conducted into the
incident, and later all charges were
dropped against the pastor.
Sheriff Carter has said, “I have apologized
to Mr. McCray, and I appreciate his
patience as I have worked through these
matters. I do listen to citizen complaints
and I take them seriously.”
The five individuals who allegedly
assaulted Pastor McCray have now also
been arrested, charged with assault by a
mob, as well as a hate crime assault. Four
of the accused were also charged with
felony abduction.
A court date has been set for July 17.
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