The case of the couple from St. Louis is still going strong six years later

One of the defining images of 2020 featured two landlords, two guns and a confrontation that caused a national storm.

Six years later, the legal, political and cultural conflicts since then continue to reverberate through debates over self-defense, private property rights, public protest and prosecutorial powers.

On June 28, 2020, as racial justice protests swept cities across America following the death of George Floyd, Black Lives Matter protesters marched through Portland Place, a private, gated street in St.

As the crowd passed through the area, the McCloskeys emerged from their home with guns – Mark with an AR-15-style rifle and Patricia with a rifle. Within hours, images of the encounter had spread across the country, turning the confrontation on a freeway in St.

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Supporters view the couple as home owners protecting their property during the unrest that has gripped cities across the country. Critics have argued that they are unnecessarily escalating the situation by opening fire on protesters.

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

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Patricia McCloskey and her husband Mark McCloskey draw their guns on protesters as they enter their property during a protest against the Mayor of St. Louis Lyda Krewson, St. Louis, Missouri, US June 28, 2020. (REUTERS/Lawrence Bryant)

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Looking back today, Mark McCloskey said the experience reinforced one lesson above all others.

“You can’t rely on others,” McCloskey told Fox News Digital. “You have to be prepared. You have to know how to defend yourself.”

One of the most recent developments occurred in 2025, when he announced that his AR-15 was finally 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!” McCloskey posted on social media after finding the gun.

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Looking back, McCloskey said the years-long legal battle reinforced the importance of perseverance.

“It teaches the value of persistence,” he said. “It took me 1,847 days, three lawsuits and two trips to the Court of Appeals to get my gun and another 60 or so days to get that gun.”

He said this scandal has also greatly disturbed the law of couples.

“Our business has been destroyed,” McCloskey said. “If you Googled McCloskey Law Center for two years after that event or so, it said ‘permanently closed.’ If you Google my name right now it still says Mark McCloskey who was a personal injury attorney. Nobody told me to retire.”

The legal dispute over guns was just the latest chapter in a saga that quickly grew beyond the dispute itself.

Then St. Louis County District Attorney Kim Gardner charged the couple with unlawful use of a weapon, sparking a highly anticipated legal battle that drew national attention. Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt condemned the prosecution and sought 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 the US Senate in Missouri, and his wife, Patricia McCloskey, walk outside the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Nov. 16, 2021. The judges ruled on Feb. 8, 2022, that if the McCloskeys violate their one-year license violation period, they will be in violation of their one-year statute of limitations. is guilty of misconduct related to the June 2020 meeting with protesters. Missouri Gov. Mike Parson later pardoned the couple. (Paul Sancia/AP)

Looking back six years later, Schmitt, who is now a member of the Missouri state legislature, said the case reflected what he believed was a broader trend among prosecutors at the time.

“As the riots destroy St.

“Unfortunately, McCloskey’s case was the rule, not the exception,” he said. “As violent crime soars, progressive prosecutors like Gardner have targeted conservatives in an apparent attempt to shore up their bona fides and advance a party’s agenda rather than uphold what the law says.”

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Sen. Eric Schmitt attends a luncheon with Senate Republicans at the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC, on Feb. 27, 2024.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Gardner’s attorney.

As attorney general, Schmitt said his office intervened because it viewed the case as an example of “a justice system that is empowered by law-abiding Missourians.”

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

The McCloskeys eventually pleaded guilty to misconduct in 2021 as part of a settlement in the case. Soon after, they received amnesty from Gov. Mike Parson who was in Missouri at the time.

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In another landmark development, a Missouri appeals court later upheld the couple’s acquittal. Under Missouri law, expungement treats those convictions as if they never occurred.

Attorney Al Watkins, who represented the McCloskeys when the dispute began, said one of the biggest misconceptions about the case is what caused the dispute in the first place.

“The tragic event was not a protest,” Watkins told Fox News Digital. “It was the local authority’s decision to authorize the law enforcement to ‘take out’ the protesters, no matter what they do.”

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In retrospect, Watkins said the case offers lessons for lawyers and prosecutors who face a lot of public and political pressure.

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

Watkins noted that the couple had chosen decades earlier to buy and restore a home in the city and raise their family in the diverse St. Louis area.

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

“The national reaction was an unsurprising and natural progression of the divisions that were growing at the time in our nation,” he said.

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

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In later years, the St. Louis became an increasingly visible figure in conservative politics, speaking at the 2020 National Convention and launching a bid for the US Senate in Missouri in 2022. Recently, he has represented other defendants facing the case of Jan. 6, 2021, the Capitol is in chaos and he represented those who were persecuted after the attack of St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

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Earlier this year, McCloskey briefly withdrew from representing hundreds of defendants on Jan. 6. before returning after the Justice Department announced plans for what it called the “Anti-Gun Fund,” which supporters say would compensate people they believe have been wrongfully prosecuted.

According to the report of St. Louis Post-Dispatch, McCloskey said he initially withdrew due to a serious medical diagnosis, describing his condition as “an incurable, chronic disease,” although he declined to disclose it publicly.

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Patricia and Mark McCloskey pulled their guns on protesters who entered their property during a protest against the Mayor of St. Louis Lyda Krewson in St. Louis, Missouri, June 28, 2020. (Lawrence Bryant/Reuters)

Yet despite his later involvement in politics, McCloskey is still closely related to the conflict that took place outside his home in June 2020.

What started as a tense situation on a secret street in St.

Despite the constant fallout, McCloskey said the experience finally gave him and his wife a platform they weren’t expecting.

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

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For his part, Watkins said he hopes the couple can finally move beyond the conflict.

“I hope they can live their lives without being demonized, abused or persecuted for defending their American dream,” he said.

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Although he said he and Patricia continue to receive death threats and hate mail, McCloskey said they are committed to speaking out publicly about constitutional issues they believe the case is independent of.

“Some that don’t last,” he said. “But overall, it also gave us an opportunity to spread the word.”

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