Earlier this month, a Black Pastor in Virginia called the police for help when five people threatened him and used racial epithets. When the officers arrived, they arrested the pastor and let the five white people go.
This is the story of Pastor Leon K. McCray Sr. who called the incident the “most humiliating, dehumanizing, damning, and violating event of my life.”
He shared the painful story with his church and posted the video online so more people would be aware of the injustice he faced.
It all started when McCray arrived at an apartment he owns in Edinburg where he noticed a man and woman dragging a refrigerator into his dumpster. He knew they weren’t residents, so he asked them to leave.
The two didn’t comply. Instead, they got three more of their friends and surrounded the pastor.
McCray told reporters that the five started attacking him verbally and physically. He said they “threatening to kill me … telling me that my Black life didn’t matter,” and that “they don’t give a darn about that stuff in this country and they could care less.”
Feeling threatened, McCray pulled out a registered firearm to ward off the attackers, but he never actually fired a shot. Instead, he called the police.
According to reports, the responding officers proceeded to interview the group of five people. Then, they walked over and arrested McCray for “brandishing a firearm,” before they even gave him a chance to tell his story.
Since the incident, the Sheriff’s office has released a statement apologizing to McCray and condemning the actions of the responding deputies.
“After talking with him about the incident, it was apparent to me that the charge of brandishing was certainly not appropriate,” the statement read.
“Actually, as I told Mr. McCray, if I were faced with similar circumstances, I would have probably done the same thing.”
The five people who assaulted McCray have now all been charged with a litany of crimes, and the two deputies have been placed on unpaid administrative leave while the incident is under investigation, news outlets report.
