Mark & Patricia McCloskey, Who Threatened BLM Protestors With Guns, Plead Guilty

Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who waved guns at racial justice protestors who marched past their Central West End mansion last year, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges on Thursday.

While neither will face jail time, each will owe a fine ($750 for Mark; $2,000 for Patricia) after pleading guilty to fourth-degree assault and second-degree harassment, respectively.

Additionally, the McCloskeys will forfeit the weapons they used to threaten protestors on June 28, 2020. On that day, the couple waved guns at protestors because they claim that they were trespassing.

Special prosecutor U.S. Attorney Richard Callahan said in a statement: “This particular resolution of these two cases represents my best judgment of an appropriate and fair disposition for the parties involved as well as the public good.”

According to Callahan, the protestors were “a racially mixed and peaceful group, including women and children, who simply made a wrong turn on their way to protest in front of the mayor’s house. There was no evidence that any of them had a weapon and no one I interviewed realized they had ventured into a private enclave.”

After leaving the Carnahan Courthouse, Mark McCloskey said, “this is a good day for the McCloskeys.”

“The prosecutor dropped every charge except for alleging that I purposely placed other people in imminent risk of physical injury, right, and I sure as heck did,” he said. “That’s what the guns were there for and I’d do it again any time the mob approaches me. … In other words, I stood out on the porch with my rifle and made them back up. And that’s what I’d do again. If that’s a crime in Missouri, by God I did it, and I’d do it again.”

Mark McCloskey has announced that he’s running for U.S. Senate in 2022.

Article by Elizabeth Letsou