After mother was shot to death, her family fights for custody of twin boys
In this July 23, 2019, photo, the family of Melissa McClure sits before a news conference at the St. Paul-Ramsey County Courthouse in St. Paul, Minn. Prosecutors plan to file to have Melodie McClure’s murder charge dismissed this week. (AP Photo/Jim Mone, Pool)
In this July 23, 2019, photo, the family of Melissa McClure sits before a news conference at the St. Paul-Ramsey County Courthouse in St. Paul, Minn. Prosecutors plan to file to have Melodie McClure’s murder charge dismissed this week. (AP Photo/Jim Mone, Pool)
ST. PAUL, Minn. – As a mother, she was a hero.
In the wake of the killing of her young children, Melissa McClure has become a symbol of gun-control activism and mental health awareness.
The children, who were 2 and 4 years old at the time of the shooting, spent years in foster care before they were adopted, McClure said.
“It’s like the second to the last time I talked to my kids,” she said in an interview. “I just don’t remember them. I don’t remember the faces.”
McClure said she was told by a social worker that if she had been raised in a gun-free home, she probably would have gone to jail.
But she knew it wouldn’t happen if she stayed silent.
“I am so outraged and am so frustrated that I’m out here every day speaking my truth,” McClure said. “It has nothing to do with the gun, and it has everything to say about the mental health system.”
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The McClures are no strangers to the news headlines. They are the parents of slain children and have fought efforts by prosecutors and their attorney general to have their murder case dismissed