Update (July 21, 2020): The Circuit Attorney’s Office in St. Louis has officially charged Mark and Patricia McCloskey for waving weapons at protesters during a Black Lives Matter protest in June, according to The New York Times.

The McCloskeys have been charged with a felony count of unlawful use of a weapon and now face up to four years in prison.

Video of the two screaming and pointing weapons at protesters racked up millions of views across multiple social media platforms. 

“It is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening manner at those participating in nonviolent protest,” St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner said in a statement to the newspaper.

Gardner said she would not press the judge for jail time and instead would recommend for the two to do community service. 

Republican Gov. Mike Parson and the attorney general of Missouri have faced criticism for spending an inordinate amount of time focused on the situation, with both appearing repeatedly in the press to denounce the charges and vow to protect the McCloskeys.

Attorney General Eric Schmitt has held multiple news conferences, filed briefs and released statements saying he will defend the couple. 

“The right to keep and bear arms is given the highest level of protection in our constitution and our laws, including the Castle Doctrine. This provides broad rights to Missourians who are protecting their property and lives from those who wish to do them harm. Despite this, Circuit Attorney Gardner filed charges against the McCloskeys, who, according to published reports, were defending their property and safety. As Missouri’s Chief law enforcement officer, I won’t stand by while Missouri law is being ignored – that’s why I entered this case to seek its dismissal, to protect the rights of Missourians to defend their property under Missouri’s Castle Doctrine,” Schmitt said in a statement. 

Parson has said he will pardon the couple, and even President Donald Trump has taken time to comment on the case.

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley threatened Gardner with a civil rights investigation, writing a letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr and stating that she was “targeting” the couple for defending themselves against “a mass of demonstrators trespassing on their property and threatening them.” 

Gardner called Republicans' obsession with the incident a “failed distraction,” in reference to the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Gardner, the first Black circuit attorney in the city, has received death threats, racist barbs and calls for her removal from office since the case began, according to The Washington Post. 

She did not hold back in an interview with The Washington Post, calling Hawley’s letter “a dog whistle of racist rhetoric.” She said the Republican response to the case was like “a modern-day night ride,” in reference to the Ku Klux Klan.

Original (June 29, 2020): Videos of a white couple brandishing guns and threatening protesters in St. Louis, who were marching toward the mayor’s house, have made their rounds on social media.

Hundreds headed to Mayor Lyda Krewson’s house on Sunday to demand her resignation after she read the names and addresses of advocates for defunding the police on Facebook Live, reports the St. Louis Dispatch. The crowd passed through a gated community, Portland Place, which seemed to anger white residents Mark and Patricia McCloskey.

The couple, who are both personal injury lawyers according to Insider, came onto their lawn to accost protesters. Mark held a semi-automatic rifle with an extended clip, and Patricia held a smaller handgun. Videos show some protesters attempting to engage in conversation with the couple, telling them to calm down, but others urged them to keep moving instead.

“Private property!” the couple shouted at the crowd. “Get out! Private property, get out!”

According to a police report, the McCloskeys called police after they heard a noise coming from outside and went to see what it was. They saw “a large group of subjects forcefully break an iron gate marked with ‘No Trespassing’ and ‘Private Street’ signs.”

“Once through the gate, the victims advised the group that they were on a private street and trespassing and told them to leave. The group began yelling obscenities and threats of harm to both victims," the report said. "When the victims observed multiple subjects who were armed, they then armed themselves and contacted police."

Police are investigating the incident that occurred in Portland Place but are classifying it as a case of trespassing and fourth-degree assault by intimidation.

The couple, who run their own firm, the McCloskey Law Center, may have been breaking a Missouri law that states a person "commits the offense of unlawful use of weapons [if] he or she knowingly exhibits, in the presence of one or more persons, any weapon readily capable of lethal use in an angry or threatening manner," Insider reported.

In an interview with KSDK, Mark compared protesters' presence on the property to them being in his living room. 

"Everything inside the Portland Place gate is private property. There is nothing public in Portland Place. Being inside that gate is like being in my living room," he said. "There is no public anything in Portland Place. It is all private property. And you’ve got to appreciate that if there are two or three hundred people, I don’t know how many there were."

"We were told that 500 people showed up at the Lyda Krewson house, which is not on our street, as you know. But how many of them came through Portland Place? I don’t know," he added. "But it was a big crowd and they were aggressive, wearing body armor and screaming at us and threatening to harm us. And how they were going to be living in our house after they kill us."

President Donald Trump retweeted one of the videos, originally posted by ABC News, captured by a protester.

According to the firm’s website, Patricia is a member of the Missouri Bar Association ethics-review panel. Mark recently represented a Black man who was kicked by a St. Louis police officer in 2019 as he tried to surrender. In March, the officer, David Maas, was indicted on charges of deprivation of rights under color of law.

At the time the charges were brought, Mark said he was "glad that the law enforcement agencies are subject to the same standard as everybody else,” reports the Associated Press.

The protest, organized by Expect Us, made its way through the community and to Krewson’s house, reports KSDK. A petition calling for her resignation has over 40,000 signatures for the act that the ACLU called “shocking and misguided.”

“As a leader, you don’t do stuff like that. … It’s only right that we visit her at her home,” said State Rep. Rasheen Aldridge at the protest.

The video was removed Friday night, and Krewson issued an apology on social media, saying she “did not intend to cause distress or harm to anyone.”

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