Police seized the rifle seen in a viral video late last month showing a St. Louis couple waving firearms at protesters marching through their gated neighborhood.
Sources told 5 On Your Side, a local NBC News affiliate, that St. Louis police officers executed a search warrant at the home of Mark and Patricia McCloskey, two personal injury lawyers, on Friday evening. They seized the rifle that Mark McCloskey was seen brandishing and pointing at demonstrators.
“We complied with the search warrant. They took my AR,” Mark McCloskey confirmed to The Todd Starnes Radio Show. “I’m absolutely surprised by this.”
As for the pistol held by Patricia McCloskey during the confrontation with protesters, the couple told police their lawyer has it. There has been no indication that any charges have been filed against the couple. Joel Schwartz, the attorney for the McCloskeys, said he hopes to meet with St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner’s office next week.
The viral incident drew a mix of widespread criticism and support for the McCloskeys’ choice to arm themselves in the face of protests described by many outlets as peaceful. The protesters were passing the McCloskeys’ mansion on their way to the home of St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson to demand her resignation after she read aloud online the personal information of her constituents calling to defund the police.
Gardner, a Democrat, announced last week that she was investigating the McCloskeys, adding that she was “alarmed” by what she had seen. Gardner defended the protesters, saying they were met with “violent assault” when the McCloskeys brandished their guns.
Patricia McCloskey told Fox News that she heard protesters talk about how they wanted to take over their home, kill her and her husband, and their dog. “There were so many threats. Then, the dog barked, and they said, ‘I’m going to be killing her, too,’ or ‘it, too,'” she said.
Protesters returned to their home last Friday and found more than a dozen men guarding the grounds.
