Mark McCloskey isn’t sorry.
In fact, the man who pointed an assault rifle at Black Lives Matter protesters marching past his ritzy St. Louis home last summer says he’d “do it again.”
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McCloskey pleaded guilty to misdemeanor fourth-degree assault Thursday as a result of that incident, which made international headlines, got him a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention, and helped make him a candidate for U.S. Senate.
“Any time the mob approaches me, I’ll do what I can to put them in imminent threat of physical injury because that’s what kept them from destroying my house and my family,” McCloskey said of the peaceful demonstrators who marched amid the huge wave of national activism after George Floyd’s death in late May last year.
Patricia McCloskey, his wife, also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment Thursday. She was fined $2,000, while Mark was fined $750.
Otherwise, the couple will face few consequences, according to the Associated Press: Both of them can continue to practice law as personal injury attorneys and continue to own guns. There will be no jail time. One concession in the plea deal is they’ll have to give up the weapons they pointed at the protesters last June, according to the Riverfront Times.
“They are very happy about the outcome and ready to move on with their lives,” Joel Schwartz, the defense attorney for the McCloskeys, told VICE News.
After the incident turned them into national figures and a cause célèbre for the Right, Patricia McCloskey said the couple was supportive of the Black Lives Matter movement. The two had previously pleaded not guilty to felony charges after they were indicted on charges of unlawful use of a weapon and evidence tampering.
Mark McCloskey’s remarks Thursday largely echoed the rhetoric on his campaign website, which describes the couple as having held “off a violent mob through the exercise of their 2nd Amendment rights.”
A special prosecutor on the case, Richard Callahan, said in a statement Thursday that the crowd, which included women and children, had just made a wrong turn on their way to protest in front of the mayor’s house.
