St. Louis couple that flashed weapons during protest indicted, lawyer says

The St. Louis couple charged with brandishing weapons while protesters demonstrating against racial injustice walked past their home have been indicted, their lawyer said Tuesday.

Attorney Joel Schwartz said Mark McCloskey, 63, and Patricia McCloskey, 61, were indicted by a grand jury on felony counts of unlawful use of a weapon and evidence tampering, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. A St. Louis court clerk said the indictment was filed Tuesday but said she was not authorized to provide a copy, the newspaper reported.

“I am not surprised that the grand jury indicted them but I’ll certainly be interested in what was presented to the grand jury,” Schwartz told reporters.

The indictment stems from a June 28 incident, when Mark McCloskey pointed an AR-15 rifle at protesters and Patricia McCloskey held a semiautomatic handgun, the Post-Dispatch reported. The McCloskeys were each charged in July with one felony count of brandishing a gun.

The McCloskeys were in court early Tuesday before the grand jury handed down its decision, KMOV reported. After their appearance, Mark McCloskey said he was frustrated that no protesters were charged.

“They broke down our gate, they trespassed on our property," Mark McCloskey told KMOV. "Not a single one of those people are now charged with anything. We’re charged with felonies that could cost us four years of our lives and our law license.”

The next step will be arraignments, KDSK reported.

A St. Louis judge postponed the McCloskeys' court appearance until next Wednesday, the Post Dispatch reported.

“What you are witnessing here is just an opportunity for the government, the leftist, Democrat government of the City of St. Louis to persecute us for doing no more than exercising our Second Amendment rights,” Mark McCloskey told reporters. “The government chooses to persecute us for doing no more than exercising our right to defend ourselves, our home, our property and our family and now we’re getting drug here time after time after time and for what? We didn’t fire a shot. People were violently protesting in front of our house and screaming death threats and threats of rape and threats of arson. Nobody gets charged but we get charged.”

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