Self-Defense Claim In Nazi Shooting Case

AUGUST 13--The Oklahoma man arrested for shooting an unarmed woman who tore down a Nazi flag flying in front of his home claims that he “acted in self-defense” when striking the fleeing victim with a hail of bullets from his AR-15 rifle, according to court filings.

In arguing for a reduction of his $500,000 bail, Alexander Feaster, 45, portrayed himself as a “patriotic citizen” and “loyal American” whose political beliefs had subjected him to threats, harassment, and the frequent theft of his flags, which “were associated in the public’s consciousness with the Third Reich and National Socialism.”

Feaster, who was locked up following the June 28 incident, has been charged with assault and battery with a deadly weapon in connection with his shooting of Kyndal McVey, 26.

According to a probable cause affidavit, McVey was at a party across from Feaster’s home when she crossed the street around 2:55 AM and grabbed one of the two swastika flags flying outside the residence. As McVey ran away with one of the flags, Feaster emerged from his home and, without warning, opened fire, striking her several times in the lower abdomen and legs.

McVey’s gunshot injuries required multiple surgeries and several weeks of hospitalization.

In his motion for a bail reduction, Feaster contended that McVey (seen below) was the real criminal and should have been charged with an assortment of offenses, including larceny, trespassing, public intoxication, and a hate crime.

However, despite Feaster’s claim that he shot McVey because he was in fear of “imminent danger of death or great bodily harm,” investigators say that the Nazi enthusiast’s home security system recorded him gunning her down as she was “obviously running away from his residence with only a flag in her hand.”

In fact, cops allege, it appears that Feaster was lying in wait for someone to try and steal his flags. When cops searched Feaster’s home after the shooting, they noticed that a chair was placed at the front of the residence facing the door. A large ashtray containing several cigarette butts was nearby, as was a pair of handcuffs. “It appeared that Mr. Feaster was anticipating an incident to take place and had been watching from that spot,” a sheriff’s deputy reported.

Investigators who seized Feaster’s AR-15 noted that the defendant’s home contained several other firearms in plain view and “other military style gear.” Feaster, an unemployed oilfield worker, spent 10 years in the military and was deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq.

As described in the bail motion, Feaster--who fired at least seven shots at McVey--is not a violent man. The AR-15 was a “precautionary weapon” that Feaster fired below the flag thief’s “center mass,” a purposeful sparing of the fleeing woman’s life.

After six weeks in the Garfield County jail, a judge yesterday granted Feaster’s motion, lowering his bail to $75,000. The alleged gunman was subsequently released from custody and will be allowed to reside with his mother in a neighboring county. A judge has ordered him to have no contact with McVey.

In a court filing last week, Feaster said that he considers himself a hate crime victim, and that no negative implications should result from his public display of a “flag of disloyalty.” While Feaster “does not subscribe to all the tenets of National Socialism,” he “believes that the United States’ economic situation, as it is now, is not dissimilar from the Weimar Republic of Germany in the early 1930’s when Adolph Hitler was elected Chancellor. He has held these views for the last two to three years.”

As seen below, one of the exhibits attached to Feaster’s court petition was a photo showing two swastika flags attached to his one-bedroom, one-bathroom home. (3 pages)