The gun a St. Louis woman used to wave off Black Lives Matter protesters was taken apart and reassembled by crime lab experts on the orders of a prosecutor after it was found to be inoperable, KSDK-TV is reporting.
A prosecutor later stated in charging documents that the gun was "readily capable of lethal use.”
Assistant Circuit Attorney Chris Hinckley had ordered the crime lab to field strip the handgun and found it had been assembled incorrectly.
The crime lab found that the firing pin spring was put in front of the firing pin, which was backward, and had made the gun incapable of firing, according to documents obtained by the television station.
The gun was reassembled by firearms experts, who test fired it.
Patricia McCloskey and her husband, Mark, face felony charges for pointing guns at a crowd of people who broke down a gate to get onto their private street in St. Louis.
In Missouri, prosecutors must prove that a weapon is “readily” capable of lethal use when it is used in the type of crime with which the McCloskeys have been charged, according to KSDK.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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