“It is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening way, that is illegal in the city of St. Louis,” said Gardner.
Gardner is recommending a diversion program like community service instead of jail if the McCloskeys are convicted. Typically, class E serious crimes can result in up to four years in prison.
McCloskeys supporters said they were legally defending their $ 1.15 million home. The photos emerged as memes on both sides of the gun debate.
Several Republican leaders have condemned the Gardner investigation, including President Donald Trump, Missouri Governor Mike Parson, and Senator Josh Hawley, who urged Attorney General William Barr to launch an investigation into Gardner’s civil rights. Parson said in a radio interview on Friday that he would likely forgive the couple if they were charged and convicted.
Gardner said Trump, Parson and others are attacking her to distract her from “their failed approach to the COVID-19 pandemic” and other issues.
St. Louis, like many cities across the country, has seen protests in the weeks after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, and the McCloskeys’ home was initially incidental to the rally on June 28. Several hundred people were marching toward the home of Democratic Mayor Lyda Krewson, a few blocks from the McCloskeys’ home. Krewson had angered activists by reading on Facebook Live the names and addresses of some who had called to remove the police.
The McCloskeys live on a private street called Portland Place. A police report said the couple heard a loud commotion and saw a large group of people break through an iron door marked with the signs “No Trespassing” and “Private Street.” A protest leader, the Rev. Darryl Gray, said the door was open and that protesters did not damage it.
The video posted online showed Mark McCloskey wielding a long-barreled pistol and Patricia McCloskey waving a small pistol. No shots were fired.
Trump spoke to Parson on the phone last week to criticize the Gardner investigation. Parson, while in the Legislature, co-authored the Missouri “castle doctrine” law that justifies deadly force for those who defend their homes from intruders. He has said that the McCloskeys “had every right to protect their property.”
Gardner refused to discuss why he decided that the castle doctrine did not apply.
McCloskeys attorney Albert Watkins said they have been longtime civil rights advocates and support the message of the Black Lives Matter movement. He said they took up their weapons when two or three white protesters violently threatened the couple, their property, and that of their neighbors.
Gardner, the first St. Louis black circuit attorney, has disagreed with some at the St. Louis settlement since her election in 2016. In particular, her office indicted the then-governor. Eric Greitens with a 2018 privacy invasion felony for allegedly taking a compromising photo of a woman during an extramarital affair. The charge was eventually dropped, but Greitens resigned in June 2018.
A private investigator hired by Gardner to investigate the claims against Greitens was later charged with perjury for allegedly lying during a deposition. Your case is pending.
Gardner also clashed with police leaders, especially after he developed an “exclusion list” of more than two dozen officers who were barred from serving as primary witnesses in criminal cases of what Gardner called credibility issues. . The move angered Police Chief John Hayden, who is also black.
In January, Gardner filed a federal lawsuit accusing the city, the police union and others of a coordinated and racist conspiracy aimed at forcing her to leave office. The lawsuit also accused “entrenched interests” of intentionally impeding their efforts to change racist practices.
Several black leaders in St. Louis have voiced their support for Gardner, including US Democratic Representative William Lacy Clay, a Democrat, who said protesters “should never be subject to the threat of deadly force, either by individuals or the police. “
