St. Louis couple charged after waving guns toward protesters
ST. LOUIS — The top prosecutor in St. Louis said Monday that she is charging a white husband and wife with felony unlawful use of a weapon for displaying guns during a racial injustice protest outside their mansion.
Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner announced the charges against Mark and Patricia McCloskey, both personal injury attorneys in their 60s.
Gardner said the McCloskeys’ actions risked creating a violent situation during an otherwise nonviolent protest.
“It is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening manner — that is unlawful in the city of St. Louis,” Gardner said.
Gardner is recommending a diversion program such as community service rather than jail time if the McCloskeys are convicted. Typically, such felonies could result in up to four years in prison.
An attorney for the couple, Joel Schwartz, called the decision to charge “disheartening as I unequivocally believe no crime was committed.”
Supporters of the McCloskeys said they were legally defending their home.
Several Republican leaders have condemned Gardner’s investigation, including President Donald Trump, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson and Sen. Josh Hawley, who has urged Attorney General William Barr to undertake a civil rights investigation of Gardner.
Parson said in a radio interview Friday that he would likely pardon the couple if they were charged and convicted.
St. Louis, like many cities across the country, has seen demonstrations since George Floyd’s death May 25 in Minneapolis, and the McCloskeys’ home was initially incidental to the demonstration June 28.
Several hundred people were marching to the home of Democratic Mayor Lyda Krewson, a few blocks from the McCloskeys’ home. Krewson had angered activists by reading on Facebook Live the names and addresses of some who had called for defunding police.
The McCloskeys live on a private street called Portland Place.
A police report said the couple heard a loud commotion and saw a large group of people break an iron gate marked with “No Trespassing” and “Private Street” signs. A protest leader, the Rev. Darryl Gray, said the gate was open and that protesters didn’t damage it.
Video posted online showed Mark McCloskey wielding a long-barreled weapon and Patricia McCloskey waving a handgun. No shots were fired.
Trump spoke by phone with Parson last week to criticize Gardner’s investigation.
Parson, when he was in the Legislature, co-authored Missouri’s “castle doctrine” law justifying deadly force for those defending their homes from intruders. He has said the McCloskeys “had every right to protect their property.”
Gardner declined to discuss why she decided the castle doctrine didn’t apply.
Albert Watkins, an attorney for the McCloskeys, said they are longtime civil rights advocates and support the message of the Black Lives Matter movement. He said they grabbed their weapons when two or three white protesters threatened the couple, their property and that of their neighbors.
Gardner, St. Louis’ first Black circuit attorney, has been at odds with some in the city’s establishment since her election in 2016. Her office charged thenGov. Eric Greitens with felony invasion of privacy in 2018 for allegedly taking a compromising photo of a woman during an extramarital affair. The charge was dropped, but Greitens resigned in June 2018.
A private investigator Gardner hired to investigate claims against Greitens was later indicted for perjury. His case is pending.
Gardner also has butted heads with police leaders, especially after she developed an “exclusion list” of more than two dozen officers who were barred from serving as primary witnesses in criminal cases over what she called credibility concerns. The move angered police Chief John Hayden, who also is Black.