St. Louis gun couple case still reverberates six years later

One of the defining images of 2020 featured two homeowners, two gunshots and a confrontation that sparked a national firestorm.

Six years later, the legal, political, and cultural ramifications from that moment continue to reverberate through debates about self-defense, private property rights, public protests, and prosecutorial authority.

On June 28, 2020, as racial justice protests swept cities across America following the death of George Floyd, Black Lives Matter demonstrators marched in St. He proceeded down Portland Place, a private, gated street in St. Louis, toward the home of then-Mayor Lyda Krewson.

As they walked through the crowded neighborhood, the McCloskeys emerged from their home with firearms; Mark with an AR-15 style rifle and Patricia with a pistol. Within hours, footage of the encounter spread across the country and St. It turned a confrontation on a private St. Louis street into a flashpoint in America’s debates about self-defense, property rights and public protest.

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Supporters viewed the couple as homeowners defending their property during a period of unrest that swept cities across the country. Critics argued that they unnecessarily escalated the situation by pointing firearms at demonstrators.

Six years later, the legal and political aftershocks of that day are still being felt.

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Patricia McCloskey and her husband Mark McCloskey were married in St. Petersburg, USA on June 28, 2020. St. Louis city They draw their firearms on protesters entering their neighborhood during a protest against St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson. (REUTERS/Lawrence Bryant)

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Looking back today, Mark McCloskey said this experience reinforced one lesson above all else.

“You can’t trust other people,” McCloskey told Fox News Digital. “You have to be prepared. You have to know how to defend yourself.”

One of the latest developments came in 2025, when he announced that his AR-15 had finally been returned after what he called three lawsuits, two visits to the Missouri Court of Appeals, and more than 1,800 days of litigation.

“It only took 3 lawsuits, 2 Court of Appeals visits, and 1,847 days, but I got my AR15 back!” McCloskey wrote on social media after receiving the rifle.

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Looking back, McCloskey said years of legal battles reinforced the value of perseverance.

“This teaches the benefit of perseverance,” he said. “It took me 1,847 days, three lawsuits and two trips to the Court of Appeals to get my rifle back, and then about 60 days to get the gun back.”

The ordeal also had a significant impact on the couple’s legal practice, he said.

“Our business is relatively devastated,” McCloskey said. “If you Googled the McCloskey Law Center for two years or more after that incident, it said ‘permanently closed.’ If you Google my name now, it still says Mark McCloskey is a former personal injury attorney. No one told me I was retired.”

The firearms legal battle was only the latest chapter in a saga that quickly spread far beyond the conflict.

Then-St. St. Louis District Attorney Kim Gardner charged the couple with illegal use of a weapon, triggering a closely watched legal battle that drew national attention. Then-Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt criticized the prosecution and attempted to intervene, arguing that the case raised broader questions about Missourians’ rights to defend themselves and their property.

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Mark McCloskey, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Missouri, and his wife, Patricia McCloskey, walk outside the Kenosha County Courthouse on November 16, 2021 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Judges ruled on Feb. 8, 2022, that if the McCloskeys violate their one-year probation, their law licenses will be suspended after pleading guilty to misdemeanors related to a June 2020 incident. He encountered protesters. Missouri Governor Mike Parson later pardoned the couple. (Paul Sancya/AP)

Looking back six years later, Schmitt, now a Missouri senator, said the case reflected what he believed was a broader trend among progressive prosecutors at the time.

“As rioters destroyed St. Louis, activist prosecutors like Kim Gardner chose to go after law-abiding citizens like the McCloskeys, not the looters and criminals who were destroying our cities,” Schmitt told Fox News Digital.

“Unfortunately, the McCloskey case has become the rule, not the exception,” he said. “As violent crime soared, progressive prosecutors like Gardner targeted conservatives in a blatant attempt to reinforce liberal good intentions and advance partisan agendas rather than uphold the letter of the law.”

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Senator Eric Schmitt goes to lunch with Senate Republicans at the U.S. Capitol on February 27, 2024 in Washington, DC.

Fox News Digital reached out to Gardner’s attorney.

As attorney general, Schmitt said his office intervened because he viewed the case as an example of “the weaponization of the justice system against law-abiding Missourians.”

“In the Senate, I am fighting to undo the damage caused by the Left’s crusade against our justice system and to punish violent criminals, not innocent Americans,” he said.

The McCloskeys ultimately pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges in 2021 as part of the verdict in the case. They soon received a pardon from then-Missouri Governor Mike Parson.

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Another important development was that a Missouri appeals court later upheld the expungement of the couple’s convictions. Under Missouri law, expungement effectively treats these convictions as if they never happened.

Attorney Al Watkins, who represented the McCloskeys in the early stages of the argument, said one of the biggest misconceptions about the case is what triggered the conflict.

“The precipitating event was not a protest,” Watkins told Fox News Digital. “It was the decision of local forces that mandated that local law enforcement strictly ‘intervene’ with protesters, regardless of their actions.”

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Looking back, Watkins said the case offers lessons for lawyers and prosecutors facing intense public and political pressure.

“Don’t be afraid to ignore political pressure,” he said. “Mr. and Mrs. McCloskey were immediately, incorrectly and unfairly labeled as racially motivated members of a privileged class.”

Watkins said the couple bought a house in the city decades ago, renovated it and moved their family to St. Louis. He stated that he chose to raise his family in a different neighborhood in St. Louis.

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As for the national response that followed, Watkins said he wasn’t surprised by the intensity of the public response.

“The national backlash was an unsurprising and natural progression of the divisiveness that was burgeoning in our nation at the time,” he said.

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The events of June 2020 also reshaped the course of Mark McCloskey’s public life.

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In the years that followed, St. The St. Louis attorney has become an increasingly visible figure in conservative politics, speaking at the 2020 Republican National Convention and running for U.S. Senate in Missouri in 2022. More recently, he represented several defendants charged in connection with the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, and sought compensation for those prosecuted after the attack. St. Louis Post Dispatch.

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Earlier this year, McCloskey briefly stepped away from representing hundreds of defendants on Jan. 6 after the Justice Department announced plans for what it called a “Combat Gun Fund,” which his supporters say could compensate people they believe were unfairly prosecuted.

St. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, McCloskey said he initially backed out because of a serious medical diagnosis and described his condition as an “incurable, always fatal disease” but refused to discuss it publicly.

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Patricia and Mark McCloskey died in St. Petersburg on June 28, 2020. St. Louis, Missouri. He draws his firearms on protesters entering their neighborhood during a protest against St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson. (Lawrence Bryant/Reuters)

Although McCloskey later became involved in politics, he remains most closely associated with the shooting outside his home in June 2020.

A special St. What started as a tense encounter on a St. Louis street turned into a legal battle, a political flashpoint and a national conversation that continues nearly six years later.

Despite the lingering negative consequences, McCloskey said the experience gave him and his wife a platform they never expected.

“It gave us a voice we wouldn’t have had otherwise,” he said. “I still speak out across the country about constitutional rights in the First Amendment and the Second Amendment.”

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Watkins said he hoped the couple could eventually move beyond the argument.

“I hope they can live their lives without being demonized, victimized, or judged once again for protecting their American dream,” he said.

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McCloskey, who said he and Patricia continue to receive occasional death threats and hate mail, said they are committed to speaking publicly about the constitutional issues they believe the case represents.

“Some lingering negatives,” he said. “But overall it once again gave us the opportunity to spread the word.”

Fox News Digital’s Sophia Compton contributed to this report.