She was waving it around because she knew it was inoperable. But they can’t even charge it as a crime unless it is operable. So the prosecution made it operable themselves then charged her. This guy who did it should be in big trouble.
Via KSDK:
ST. LOUIS — The gun Patricia McCloskey waved at protesters was inoperable when it arrived at the St. Louis police crime lab, but a member of St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Kim Gardner’s staff ordered crime lab experts to find out why and wrote that it was “readily capable of lethal use,” in charging documents filed Monday, 5 On Your Side has learned.
In Missouri, police and prosecutors must prove that a weapon is “readily” capable of lethal use when it used in the type of crime with which the McCloskeys have been charged.
At the request of Assistant Circuit Attorney Chris Hinckley, crime lab staff members field stripped the handgun and found it had been assembled incorrectly. Specifically, the firing pin spring was put in front of the firing pin, which was backward, and made the gun incapable of firing, according to the documents.