Supporters of a trio arrested outside the Holland Tunnel for allegedly having a cache of weapons are coming to their defense.
Michael McKenna says that he knows Dean Smith, one of the three people arrested Tuesday in Jersey City. He says that Smith went along with John Cramsey and Kim Arendt in order to document Cramsey's latest heroin rescue.
"This was out of his heart that he was going and documenting this for Mr. Cramsey," McKenna says.
The three Pennsylvania residents were apparently heading into New York City to "extract" a 16-year-old girl who was involved in drugs and holed up in a hotel against her will, according to a post Cramsey made on Facebook. He says that he was asked by the girl's family to go get her.
Cramsey, whose own daughter died of a drug overdose earlier this year, apparently founded the group Enough is Enough. The group is dedicated to fighting against heroin addiction.
The trio was pulled over outside the Holland Tunnel after a Port Authority police officer noticed that their windshield had a crack in it. While conducting the traffic stop, police say that an officer noticed a gun inside the vehicle.
When they asked Cramsey about it, they noticed more guns; some were loaded and some were illegal to possess in New Jersey.
"I think they were profiled, plain and simple," says McKenna. "The search was an illegal search and seizure, their Fourth Amendment rights were violated.
McKenna says that a photo shoot for Cramsey's business, Higher Ground Tactical, was the reason his truck had so many guns in it.
On social media dozens in Pennsylvania praised Cramsey's effort.
The trio appeared in Hudson County Court Wednesday morning. Their bail was set at $75,000, with no 10 percent option.
Their attorneys are arguing that the SUV should have never been pulled over and that the search was illegal.