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Missouri governor pardons gun-waving couple from St. Louis

The St. Louis couple who pointed guns at protesters walking past their home last summer have been pardoned, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson announced Tuesday.

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Mark McCloskey and Patricia McCloskey pleaded guilty on June 17 to misdemeanor charges, and each were ordered to pay fines without facing jail time, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. A judge approved a plea deal from the couple while they were in court for a hearing, KDSK reported.

The McCloskeys walked out of their home on a private street on June 28, 2020, and held guns as a crowd of protesters was walking toward then-Mayor Lyda Krewson’s residence, according to the Post-Dispatch. Mark McCloskey pointed an AR-15 rifle at protesters and Patricia McCloskey held a semiautomatic handgun, the newspaper reported.

Their actions were caught by photographs and cellphone video, according to The Associated Press.

Mark McCloskey pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor fourth-degree assault chart and was fined $750, and Patricia McCloskey, who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment, was fined $2,000, the Post-Dispatch reported in June.

>> St. Louis couple that flashed weapons during protest indicted, lawyer says

Mark McCloskey announced in May that he will be running for U.S. Senate as a Republican.

The couple’s attorney, Joel Schwartz, said his clients were “thrilled.”

“They want to put this episode of their lives behind them and focus on Mark’s campaign for (the) Senate,” Schwartz told reporters. “As Mark McCloskey has stated, if he faced the same situation again, he would conduct himself in the same manner, and he feels he’s been vindicated by the governor’s pardon.”