St. Louis couple who aimed guns at protesters charged with felony weapons count - The Washington Post

Lawyers Mark McCloskey, 61, and Patricia McCloskey, 63, have said they were merely defending their home on a private street in an upscale neighborhood from a crowd that was marching to Mayor Lyda Krewson’s house to protest racial injustice.

Video and photographs showing Mark McCloskey wielding a rifle and Patricia McCloskey aiming a pistol at the marchers created a firestorm of controversy between those who felt the couple was legally defending their home and those who felt they were menacing peaceful protesters.

Schwartz called the charges “disheartening, as I unequivocally believe no crime was committed.” Schwartz said the McCloskeys “support the First Amendment right of every citizen to have their voice and opinion heard.

In a statement Monday, Gardner said “it is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening manner at those participating in nonviolent protest.” She said if the McCloskeys completed a diversion program, “I believe this would serve as a fair resolution to this matter.”.

Legal experts said that the Second Amendment right to possess a gun does not necessarily allow an individual to brandish it at another person.

After video of the McCloskeys went viral, Gardner said she would investigate.

The city’s first African American prosecutor said she was alarmed that “peaceful protesters were met by guns and a violent assault.

Louis prosecutor Kim Gardner in McCloskey case.

“The only thing that stopped the crowd from approaching the house was when I had that rifle,” Mark McCloskey said in an interview with NBC affiliate KSDK.

The McCloskeys and their supporters have said that the “castle doctrine” in Missouri law, and elsewhere, empowers a homeowner to stand their ground and use deadly force when threatened.

Based on the video evidence, that’s a very difficult argument to make,” because the protesters were unarmed and did not move toward the McCloskey residence, Sullivan said

“Otherwise,” Sullivan said, “the castle doctrine would swallow up all of the existing law and we’d have a ‘Wild Wild West’ out there.”