MISSOURI — Missouri Republican Gov. Mike Parson has pardoned Patricia and Mark McCloskey, the St. Louis homeowners who went viral after footage of them pointing guns at protesters near their home, was posted online.
The couple claimed they felt threatened by the protesters, who were passing their home last summer on their way to demonstrate in front of the mayor’s house.
Patricia McCloskey pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment and was ordered to pay a fine of $2,000 in June. Her husband pleaded guilty to misdemeanor fourth-degree assault for threatening the passersby with an AR-15 rifle and received a $750 fine.
The couple was among the 12 pardons that Parson granted last week.
“Mark McCloskey has publicly stated that if he were involved in the same situation, he would have the exact same conduct,” the McCloskeys’ lawyer Joel Schwartz said. “He believes that the pardon vindicates that conduct.”
The McCloskeys are both lawyers. They will keep their law licenses following Parson’s pardon.
“It’s kind of humorous for me at any rate, the charge they finally settled on for me, because it’s exactly what I did do,” McCloskey told Fox News. “That’s the whole point of the Second Amendment. We stood out there with guns, and that placed them in imminent fear of physical injury, and they back off.”
The decision has faced heavy criticism.
“Missouri’s racist criminal justice system put two innocent black men (Kevin Strickland & Lamar Johnson) in prison, but the Gov chose to ignore them,” tweeted the Ethical Society of Police, a St. Louis association established by Black police officers.
