The couple who pointed guns at protestors as they marched towards the mayor’s home in Missouri during the wave of racial justice demonstrations inspired by the murder of George Floyd last summer have been pardoned by the state’s governor.
According to the AP News, Missouri governor Mike Parson pardoned couple Mark and Patricia McCloskey. In June, Mark McCloskey plead guilty to misdemeanor fourth-degree assault and was fined $750, and Patricia McCloskey plead guilty to misdemeanor harassment and was fined $2,000.
The McCloskeys’ lawyer, Joel Schwartz, told the press on Tuesday that Mark would have “the exact same conduct” if the incident were to happen again.
“Mark McCloskey has publicly stated that if he were involved in the same situation, he would have the exact same conduct,” Schwartz said. “He believes that the pardon vindicates that conduct.”
The couple claimed to feel threatened by the protestors that were passing their home, and some allegedly trespassed on their property. In response to the peaceful protestors, Mark McCloskey went onto his lawn with an AR-15-style rifle, and Patricia McCloskey had a semiautomatic pistol. No shots were fired, and no one was harmed during the incident.
Special prosecutor Richard Callahan also confirmed that it was determined that the protesters were peaceful through his investigation.
“I’d do it again,” McCloskey said from the courthouse steps. “Any time the mob approaches me, I’ll do what I can to put them in imminent threat of physical injury because that’s what kept them from destroying my house and my family.”
