#Black pastor arrested after calling cops on white ‘mob’ threatening to kill him

A Virginia sheriff has apologized to a black pastor who was arrested for pulling a gun on a group of white neighbors as they allegedly assaulted and threatened to kill him.

Pastor Leon McCray, 61, told his congregation that he was surrounded by a “mob” of five “irate” people who attacked him “verbally and physically” after he stopped them dumping a refrigerator on his property in Edinburg.

The group was “threatening my life,” he said during a sermon at his Lighthouse Church & Marketplace Ministries International — claiming they also told him, “Black lives don’t matter.”

“Being threatened and fearing for my life, I took and felt compelled to pull my concealed weapon — my legally concealed weapon — to save my life,” he told congregants in the June 7 sermon.

“This act, through the grace of God, saved my life,” he insisted, saying it bought him time to dial 911 and beg for help.

But the responding officers “made a beeline” for him instead, arresting him even as the group continued making threats against him, he claimed.

“The hate-crime assaulting criminals watched me being handcuffed and carted off like a dog while the deputies stood with them,” he told his congregants, saying he was charged with brandishing a weapon despite his “Second Amendment rights.”

“This was indeed the most humiliating, dehumanizing, demeaning and violating event of my life,” he said, calling it “a day that changed my life.”

“I felt, literally, like I had been lynched, without being killed,” he added.

The group also allegedly hurled racial slurs at the pastor, telling him, “We will kill you,” he told WHSV.

Five days after the sermon, Shenandoah County Sheriff Timothy Carter announced that the charge against the pastor had been dropped — and that hate-crime charges were being filed against his alleged attackers. He also placed two supervisors on unpaid administrative leave during a review of the case.

“I have apologized to Mr. McCray,” Carter said, conceding 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,” the sheriff said of the pastor defending himself.

He also announced warrants for “more severe charges” against the alleged attackers, who are being held without bond.

Donny Salyers, 43, Dennis Salyers, 26, Farrah Salyers, 42, Amanda Salyers, 26, and Christopher Sharp, 57, are all facing charges for hate crimes and various degrees of assault.

Both Donny and Dennis Salyers are also charged with assault and battery, while Sharp and Amanda Salyers are charged with trespassing.