St. Louis couple charged for pulling guns at protest
ST.
LOUIS — St. Louis’ top prosecutor told The Associated Press on 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, who are both personal
injury attorneys in their 60s. They also face a misdemeanor charge of
fourth-degree assault.
Gardner said in an interview with the
AP ahead of more broadly announcing the charges that 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, class E
felonies could result in up to four years in prison.
Supporters
of the McCloskeys said they were legally defending their $1.15 million
home. Photos emerged as memes on both sides of the gun debate.
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.
Gardner
said Trump, Parson and others are attacking her to distract from “their
failed approach to the COVID-19 pandemic” and other issues.
St.
Louis, like many cities across the country, has seen demonstrations in
the weeks since George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, and the McCloskeys’
home was initially incidental to the demonstration on 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 gun and Patricia McCloskey waving a
small 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 that justifies deadly force for those who are defending their homes
from intruders. He has said that the McCloskeys “had every right to
protect their property.”
Gardner declined to discuss why she decided the castle doctrine didn’t apply.
The McCloskeys’ attorney, Albert
Watkins, said they are longtime civil rights advocates and support the
message of the Black Lives Matter movement. He said they grabbed their
guns when two or three white protesters violently 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 St. Louis
establishment since her election in 2016. Most notably, her office
charged then-Gov. 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 eventually dropped, but Greitens resigned in June 2018.
A private investigator Gardner hired to investigate the claims against Greitens was later indicted for perjury for allegedly lying during a deposition. 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 Gardner called credibility
concerns. The move angered Police Chief John Hayden, who also is Black.
In January, Gardner filed a federal
lawsuit accusing the city, the police union and others of a coordinated
and racist conspiracy aimed at forcing her out of office. The lawsuit
also accused “entrenched interests” of intentionally impeding her
efforts to change racist practices.
Several Black leaders in St. Louis
have expressed support for Gardner, including U.S. Rep. William Lacy
Clay, a Democrat, who has said protesters “should never be subject to
the threat of deadly force, whether by individuals or by the police.”
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