#St. Louis couple that pulled guns on protesters once challenged neighbor at gunpoint

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Patricia McCloskey holds a pistol while her husband Mark brandishes an AR-15 in front of their St. Louis mansion as they confront protesters on Sunday.
UPI

The St. Louis couple that exploded into viral infamy when they pulled guns on a crowd of George Floyd protesters has brandished firearms before in defense of what they consider their property.

Mark and Patricia McCloskey, 63 and 61 respectively, have been in a long-running legal dispute with the trustees of their private Portland Street community over a small patch of land, according to The St. Louis Post Dispatch.

The McCloskeys, who are both personal injury lawyers, maintain that they own the triangle of land near the home they have owned since 1988, while the trustees contend that it belongs to the neighborhood.

In an affidavit filed in the case, Mark McCloskey wrote that he and his wife have “regularly prohibited all persons, including Portland Place residents, from crossing the Parcel including at least at one point, challenging a resident at gunpoint who refused to heed the McCloskeys’ warnings to stay off such property.”

In that incident — which took place in either 1988 or 1989 according to Albert Watkins, the couple’s attorney — Patricia McCloskey heard a noise at night and saw someone cutting through the disputed stretch.

“She looked down, had a gun and screamed for the person to stay off her property,” Watkins said, noting that the person — a neighbor — is now friends with the couple.

The couple has “touched their weapons” just twice in their time living in the community, Watkins said — the 1980s incident and Sunday, when Mark brandished a rifle and Patricia a handgun to ward off protesters approaching the well-heeled community.

No shots were fired.

Mark McCloskey, who has said that he was in fear of a “storming of the Bastille” and “terrorism,” and his wife are now the subject of a criminal investigation.

With Post wires