O’FALLON, Mo. (AP) – The white St. Louis couple who became internationally famous for being on duty with weapons outside their mansion during a protest have previously pulled out a weapon in defense of their property, according to a statement. sworn in an ongoing case. .
As protesters marched near Mark and Patricia McCloskey’s palazzo-style Renaissance home on Sunday, the video posted online showed her wielding a long-barreled pistol and she with a small pistol. No shots were fired.
The McCloskeys, he is 63 and she is 61, are personal injury attorneys and their home is on a private street called Portland Place in the well-to-do Central West End of St. Louis. Their lawyer, Albert Watkins, said the couple has long been a civil rights defender and supports the message of the Black Lives Matter movement. She said they seized their weapons when two or three protesters, who were white, violently threatened the couple, and their properties and those of their neighbors.
Circuit attorney Kimberly Gardner said her office was working with police to investigate, saying she was alarmed that “peaceful protesters were met with firearms and a violent assault.”
The McCloskeys and Portland Place Trustees are involved in a three-year legal dispute over a small property. The McCloskeys claim they own it, but administrators say it belongs to the neighborhood.
A judge ruled Monday against motions from both sides to end the case without a trial. Details about the legal case were first reported Thursday by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Mark McCloskey said in the affidavit that he and his wife bought the house in 1988 and have taken several steps to improve the disputed lot.
The affidavit states that they have “regularly prohibited all people, including Portland Place residents, from crossing the package, including at least one point, defying a resident at gunpoint who refused to heed warnings from the McCloskeys to stay off such property. “
Watkins said in an interview that the McCloskeys have “touched their weapons” only twice in their 32 years at Portland Place, during the 1988 or 1989 incident cited in the affidavit, and on Sunday.
In the previous incident, Watkins said, Patricia McCloskey heard a noise at night and saw someone.
“She looked down, she had a gun, and she yelled at the person to stay off her property,” Watkins said. It turned out to be a neighbor who was walking home from a nearby business district. Watkins said the neighbor was then, and is now, a friend of the couple.
Protesters were angered Sunday by Mayor Lyda Krewson for reading aloud the names and addresses of several residents who wrote letters calling for the police department to be removed. The group of at least 500 people chanted: “Give up, Lyda! Take the police with you!
Police said the McCloskeys heard a loud commotion on the street and saw a large group of people break through an iron door marked with “No Trespassing” and “Private Street” signs. The video showed protesters walking out the door and it was unclear when it was damaged.
