It became one of the most recognizable scenes of 2020: a pair of homeowners, both armed, facing off with protesters in a confrontation that quickly erupted into a national controversy.
Six years on, the legal, political and cultural consequences of that episode still echo in arguments over self-defense, private property, public demonstrations and the reach of prosecutors.
The incident unfolded on June 28, 2020, as racial justice protests were taking place in cities nationwide after the death of George Floyd. Black Lives Matter demonstrators entered Portland Place, a private gated street in St. Louis, while marching toward the home of then-Mayor Lyda Krewson.
As the group moved through the neighborhood, Mark and Patricia McCloskey came out of their residence with guns — Mark holding an AR-15-style rifle and Patricia carrying a handgun. By the end of the day, photos and video of the encounter had circulated across the country, transforming a dispute on a private St. Louis street into a national symbol in debates over gun rights, property protections and protest activity.
Armed homeowners Mark T. and Patricia N. McCloskey stand in front of their house as they confront protesters marching to St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson’s house on June 28, 2020. (Laurie Skrivan/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Tribune News Service)
To supporters, the McCloskeys represented residents protecting their home amid a tense period of unrest across the United States. To critics, their decision to display firearms at marchers inflamed a situation that did not need to become more volatile.
Years later, the repercussions from that summer confrontation continue to shape both legal arguments and political narratives.
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Patricia McCloskey and her husband Mark McCloskey draw their firearms on protesters as they enter their neighborhood during a protest against St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson, in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. June 28, 2020. (REUTERS/Lawrence Bryant)
Looking back today, Mark McCloskey said the experience reinforced one lesson above all else.
“You can’t rely on others,” McCloskey told News Agency. “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 described as three lawsuits, two trips to the Missouri Court of Appeals and more than 1,800 days of litigation.
“It only took 3 lawsuits, 2 trips to the Court of Appeals and 1,847 days, but I got my AR15 back!” McCloskey wrote on social media after recovering the rifle.
Looking back, McCloskey said the yearslong legal battle reinforced the value of perseverance.
“It 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 another 60 days or so to get that pistol back.”
He said the ordeal also took a significant toll on the couple’s law practice.
“Our business was relatively destroyed,” McCloskey said. “If you Googled the McCloskey Law Center for two years after that event or longer, it said ‘permanently closed.’ If you Google my name right now it still says Mark McCloskey is a former personal injury lawyer. Nobody told me I retired.”
The legal battle over the firearms was only the latest chapter in a saga that quickly expanded far beyond the confrontation itself.
Then-St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner charged the couple with unlawful use of a weapon, triggering a closely watched legal fight that drew national attention. Then-Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt criticized the prosecution and sought to intervene, arguing the case raised broader questions about Missourians’ rights to defend themselves and their property.
Mark McCloskey, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Missouri, and his wife, Patricia McCloskey, walk outside the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Nov. 16, 2021. Judges ruled on Feb. 8, 2022, that if the McCloskeys violate their one-year probation periods, their law licenses will be suspended after pleading guilty to misdemeanors related to a June 2020 encounter with protesters. Missouri Gov. 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 believes was a broader trend among progressive prosecutors during that period.
“As rioters razed St. Louis, activist prosecutors like Kim Gardner chose to go after law-abiding citizens like the McCloskeys—not the looters and criminals destroying our cities,” Schmitt told News Agency.
“Unfortunately, the McCloskey case became the rule, not the exception,” he said. “As violent crimes skyrocketed, progressive prosecutors like Gardner targeted conservatives in an obvious attempt to beef up liberal bona fides and advance partisan agendas instead of upholding the letter of the law.”
Sen. Eric Schmitt walks to a luncheon with Senate Republicans at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 27, 2024.
News Agency reached out to Gardner’s attorney.
As attorney general, Schmitt said his office intervened because it viewed the case as an example of “the justice system being weaponized against law-abiding Missourians.”
“In the Senate, I’m fighting to undo the damage caused by the Left’s crusade against our justice system and punish violent criminals, not innocent Americans,” he said.
The McCloskeys ultimately pleaded guilty to misdemeanor offenses in 2021 as part of a resolution to the case. Shortly afterward, they received pardons from then-Missouri Gov. Mike Parson.
In another significant development, a Missouri appeals court later affirmed the expungement of the couple’s convictions. Under Missouri law, the expungement effectively treats those convictions as though they never occurred.
Attorney Al Watkins, who represented the McCloskeys during the early stages of the controversy, said one of the biggest misconceptions about the case is what triggered the confrontation in the first place.
“The precipitating event was not the protest,” Watkins told News Agency. “It was the decision by local powers that be to mandate that local law enforcement be strictly ‘hands off’ protesters, regardless of their acts.”
Looking back, Watkins said the case offers lessons for lawyers and prosecutors facing intense public and political pressure.
“Do not 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 noted that the couple had chosen decades earlier to purchase and restore a home in the city and raise their family in a diverse St. Louis neighborhood.
As for the national reaction that followed, Watkins said he was not surprised by the intensity of the public response.
“The national reaction was an unsurprising and natural progression of the then-burgeoning divisiveness in our nation,” he said.
The events of June 2020 also reshaped the course of Mark McCloskey’s public life.
In the years that followed, the St. Louis attorney became an increasingly visible figure in conservative politics, speaking at the 2020 Republican National Convention and launching a bid for the U.S. Senate in Missouri in 2022. More recently, he has represented some defendants charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and advocated for compensation for those prosecuted after the attack, according to reporting by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Earlier this year, McCloskey briefly stepped away from representing hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants before returning after the Justice Department announced plans for what it called an “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” which supporters say could compensate individuals they believe were unfairly prosecuted.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, McCloskey said he had initially stepped back because of a serious medical diagnosis, describing his condition as an “incurable, always-fatal disease,” though he declined to identify it publicly.
Patricia and Mark McCloskey draw their firearms on protesters entering their neighborhood during a protest against St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson in St. Louis, Missouri, on June 28, 2020. (Lawrence Bryant/Reuters)
Yet despite his later involvement in politics, McCloskey remains most closely associated with the confrontation that unfolded outside his home in June 2020.
What began as a tense encounter on a private St. Louis street evolved into a legal battle, a political flashpoint and a national conversation that continues nearly six years later.
Despite the lingering fallout, McCloskey said the experience ultimately gave him and his wife a platform they never expected.
“It has given us a voice that we would not otherwise have,” he said. “I still speak around the country on constitutional rights in the First Amendment and the Second Amendment.”
For his part, Watkins said he hopes the couple can finally move beyond the controversy.
“I am hopeful they can live out their lives without again being demonized, victimized or prosecuted for protecting their American dream,” he said.
While he said he and Patricia continue to receive occasional death threats and hate mail, McCloskey said they remain committed to speaking publicly about the constitutional issues they believe the case represents.
“Some lingering negatives,” he said. “But overall, once again, it has given us an opportunity to spread the word.”
