Prosecutor Falsely Claimed Gun Was Capable of Firing When Brandished It Outside Home

https://news.yahoo.com/prosecutor-falsely-claimed-patricia-mccloskey-164020254.html

Zachary Evans
,National Review•July 24, 2020

Patricia McCloskey’s handgun was inoperable when she brandished it to ward off demonstrators who had congregated on her front lawn, but a St. Louis prosecutor ordered crime lab technicians to reassemble the gun in working order and then attested that it was “readily capable of lethal use” in charging documents filed against McCloskey.

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“The firearm could not be test fired as submitted,” reads a report from the St. Louis police crime lab obtained by 5 On Your Side. “At the request of ACA Chris Hinckley, the firearm was field stripped and found to have been assembled incorrectly….The firearm was reassembled properly, test fired and functioned as designed.” Crime lab workers photographed the disassembly and reassembly process.

McCloskey’s husband Mark also brandished a firearm, an AR-15 rifle. The couple said they had intentionally rendered the handgun inoperable so that they could use it as a prop in court, in a separate case brought against a gun manufacturer.

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