Black Pastor Arrested After Calling Cops On White People Who Threatened Him

Source: William Nation / Getty

A Black pastor by the name of Leon McCray, who works for the Lighthouse Church & Marketplace Ministries International in Virginia, was arrested earlier in June. It all happened after he called the police on five white people who surrounded him, threatening to kill him.

According to reports from BuzzFeed News, McCray was driving to his property in Edinburg, Virginia on June 1 when he saw two people dragging a refrigerator to his dumpster. When he asked them to leave, since they were trespassing, they confronted him, calling over three others who all circled around him, and hurled threats.

“They were telling me that my Black life and Black Lives Matter stuff – that they don’t give a darn about stuff in this county and they could care less and ‘We will kill you,'” McCray revealed during a sermon at his church.

Because he was feeling threatened by the group, McCray pulled out his licensed concealed gun while he dialed 911 to report them. When the police arrived, they spoke with the group of white people, then told McCray that he was going to be arrested for brandishing a weapon–all before he got the chance to tell them his side of the story.

As he was driven away, McCray remembers seeing the group waving at him and yelling “racial epithets.” He was released later that night after providing a written statement.

Shenandoah County Sheriff Timothy Carter shared on Facebook that he personally contacted McCray two days after the arrest to apologize for the misunderstanding, informing him that the charge against him had officially been dropped.