St. Louis homeowner Mark McCloskey who was photographed alongside his wife waving guns at protesters who had entered his gated community, said there are rumblings that the couple will be indicted.
McCloskey appeared Monday on Tucker Carlson Tonight, during which he addressed the controversy and said that his lawyer advised him not to appear on TV because of the possibility that he and his wife, Patricia McCloskey, might face criminal charges.
“My attorney advised me not to be on the show tonight because the rumor is that we are going to be indicted shortly,” he said. “Having said that, this is the same circuit attorney that released 35 of the protesters that torched and looted downtown St. Louis, but now she wants to indict me.”
“I didn’t shoot anybody, I just held my ground, protected my house, and I’m sitting here on television tonight instead of dead or putting out the smoldering embers of my home,” McCloskey, a personal injury lawyer, told Carlson.
Last Friday, police officers executed a search warrant at the McCloskey residence and seized the rifle that Mark McCloskey was seen brandishing and pointing at demonstrators. After the incident, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner announced that her office was investigating the incident and has defended the demonstrators, contending they were met with “violent assault” when the couple brandished their firearms.
Mark McCloskey said Monday that it appeared the police were on their side and described having a positive experience with officers who were executing the warrant last week.
“The police were really very professional and very nice. The cops that came out to issue the search warrant on us, they were almost apologetic,” he recounted. “They didn’t want to have to be there. They were doing their job.”
“They, unfortunately, are stuck between a circuit attorney that wants to prosecute us in their own belief that we did absolutely nothing wrong,” he added.
McCloskey said that because of the lack of law enforcement control during ongoing demonstrations, he and his wife were forced to pull out their weapons and defend themselves because they felt threatened during the encounter.
“When you have certain elements of society encouraging violence, at the same time asking the police to stand down, what’s the only possible result? The only possible solution is for individual citizens to stand up and defend themselves,” he said.
