Sheriff Apologizes to Black Pastor in Virginia Attacked in Possible Hate Crime, Arrested

He said he was visiting an apartment he owns in Edinburg on June 1 when he noticed a man and a woman dragging a refrigerator from another property into his dumpster, and they became irate when he asked them to leave.

McCray said they threatened him and returned with three more people, attacking him physically, saying “they don’t give a darn” about “my black life and the Black Lives Matter stuff,” and telling him they would “kill” him.

McCray said they backed up when he drew his legal concealed weapon to “save” his life, giving him enough time to call 911. Arriving deputies then took his gun while talking with the five, who continued threatening him and yelling racist epithets at him.

The deputies wouldn’t let him tell his side, he said; instead, he was “handcuffed in front of the mob,” for brandishing the handgun, and driven away while the group stood with other deputies, waving at him as he went down the road.

McCray said the deputies rushed to judgment, “disarming a black male brandishing a gun against five white individuals” despite his “second Amendment right to defend myself against five attackers that tried to take my life.” The arrest “would not be tolerated if I was white,” he added.

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