A lawyer was arrested Sunday after brandishing what appeared to be a grenade at pro-life protesters in front of a left-leaning church in Conway, South Carolina.
Richard Lovelace, 79, was seen outside St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Conway speaking to activists while holding what he claimed was a grenade in a video captured by Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust. Lovelace, who has practiced law in the area for decades, is now in a Horry County jail, records show.
“This man, he walked up and I thought he was coming to have a conversation and wanted to share his point of view,” Survivors organizer Jessica Newell told the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF).
“He said, ‘This is a gift for you protesters. It’s a hand grenade,’” Newell said. She did not recall Survivors having any prior interaction with Lovelace.
Police arrived to arrest Lovelace about five minutes after Newell called, she told the DCNF. Footage shows officers restraining the attorney and seating him in a police car with flashing lights. Newell told the police she did not know whether the grenade was real but wanted them to ensure Lovelace would not pose a danger, she said.
The Conway Police Department and Lovelace’s law firm did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
“We fully respect the right of citizens to peacefully protest, and we do not condone any behavior from any party that could be perceived as threatening in any way,” a spokesperson for the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina told the DCNF, declining to provide details about the incident.
Activists for Survivors have seen an increase in threats since the Sept. 10 murder of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, Survivors organizer Kristin Dorsey told the DCNF. One man was seen on video in October flashing a knife while the group attempted to talk to students about abortion at San Bernardino Valley College in California.
“We’ve been going on campuses for years, and, you know, we’ve gotten threats here or there, maybe the occasional shove or spitting on, but recently we’ve seen a real uptick in the amount of violent threats that we’re getting for just speaking our minds,” Dorsey said.
The national Episcopal Church endorses abortion as a woman’s “right.” Survivors says St. Anne’s has ties to the abortion industry, which the DCNF could not independently verify. The church views itself as an institution of “radical love and inclusivity” toward LGBTQ+ people and other groups, according to its website.
The church’s diocese denied a claim by Survivors that St. Anne’s is a supporter of Palmetto State Abortion Fund, a South Carolina-based Planned Parenthood ally that helps women obtain abortions. “Church leadership is not sure about the origins of that claim but it is not true,” the diocese said.
Newell said critics like Lovelace should know that she still believes in the importance of dialogue with them on abortion.
“I would tell him that I would be open in that moment to having a conversation, and that his viewpoint is valid, and he deserves to be heard just as much as I do,” she told the DCNF. “So, that’s something that I would want to handle, and I’m sad that it went the other way.”
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