Felony charges have been filed against a St. Louis couple who pointed guns at protesters marching past their home last month in an episode that was captured on video and drew the attention of a divided nation, including President Trump.
The couple, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, were charged on Monday by the Circuit Attorney’s Office in St. Louis with unlawful use of a weapon, exhibiting. The charge is a Class E felony that carries a possible penalty of up to four years in prison.
The circuit attorney in St. Louis, Kimberly M. Gardner, said the couple created a dangerous situation. “It is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening manner at those participating in nonviolent protest,” she said in a statement.
Ms. Gardner, a Democrat, said she would not seek jail time for the couple were they to be convicted, but rather would seek to place them in a diversion program, like community service.
In a statement, the couple’s lawyer, Joel J. Schwartz, called the charges “disheartening.” He said that his clients, who are personal injury lawyers, support freedom of speech.
“However,” he added that it “must be balanced with the Second Amendment and Missouri law, which entitle each of us to protect our home and family from potential threats.”
The governor of Missouri, Mike Parson, has come to the couple’s defense, saying in a radio interview that he would most likely pardon the couple and that “I don’t think they’re going to spend any time in jail.”
The couple recently appeared at a virtual campaign event for Mr. Trump, who said last week that prosecution of the couple was “a disgrace.”
On June 28, protesters marched past the McCloskeys’ home, which is on a private street, on their way to the home of Mayor Lyda Krewson, a Democrat, who lives nearby. Ms. Krewson had angered local residents after she read the names and addresses of people who said the police should be defunded on Facebook Live.
As demonstrators passed the house, Mr. McCloskey, 63, held a semiautomatic rifle and Mrs. McCloskey, 61, held a semiautomatic handgun, according to the complaint and probable cause statement from the prosecutor’s office.
Both pointed their weapons at the protesters, the prosecutor’s office said. Ms. McCloskey’s finger was “on the trigger” and she acted with an “excited demeanor,” the office noted.
Mr. McCloskey has said he and his wife feared for their lives.
Mr. McCloskey said in an interview last month with KSDK, a local television station, “I really thought it was storming the Bastille, that we would be dead and the house would be burned and there was nothing we could do about it.”
He continued: “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.”
In the interview, Mr. McCloskey said he supported the Black Lives Matter movement.
The McCloskeys have a long history of conflict with others over private property, according to The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which reviewed public records for a report on the couple last week.
Aimee Ortiz contributed reporting.
