The St. Louis man facing charges along his wife for brandishing guns at Black Lives Matter protesters says police have video showing armed demonstrators in front of their home.
Mark McCloskey, who was caught on viral video with his wife, Patricia, on June 28 outside their palatial home holding a weapon as protesters marched down a private road, disputed reports Thursday that the demonstration was nonviolent.
“You know, the interesting thing is that the media is reporting this as a peaceful protest, and everybody keeping playing the same 32-second clip, or a little tiny bits of a 32-second clip, of an event that went on for 12 or 15 minutes,” Mark McCloskey, 63, told Fox News. “Yeah, it was peaceful alright.”
McCloskey, a personal injury attorney, said members of the “same crowd” later that evening wielded an AK-47 while outside the home of St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson and “challenged” a local news reporter.
“That’s how peaceful that protest was,” McCloskey said.
McCloskey said police investigators have video footage of people in the crowd outside his home who were “armed with guns,” adding that he also saw the firearms and was himself threatened by one demonstrator.
“We saw the weapons at the time, and as I told you once before, one fella in particular pulled out two loaded magazines, showed me them so I could see the shells in the magazine, clicked them together and said, ‘You’re next,’” McCloskey told Sean Hannity.
The McCloskeys, who face charges of felony unlawful use of a weapon and fourth-degree assault, filed a motion Wednesday seeking to disqualify Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner from the case, alleging she exploited the matter for political gain, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
Gardner, according to the McCloskeys, cited the case in an email to generate support for her re-election bid for St. Louis circuit attorney. She faces former assistant prosecutor Mary Pat Carl in a Democratic primary next week, the newspaper reports.
The McCloskeys were charged three days after Gardner’s July 17 email that “drew a direct line” from the incident to Gardner’s “political antagonists, and from there to call for donations to further her re-election efforts,” the motion alleges.
Missouri’s governor, meanwhile, has said he would pardon the McCloskeys if they’re ultimately convicted in the case.
Mark McCloskey said he was comforted by the support Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, but said he would still have to “fight the battle” and incur hefty legal fees before that occurs.
“And put up with all the lies and slander in the press,” McCloskey said.