ST. LOUIS _ Lawyers Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who pointed a rifle and pistol at protesters Sunday night in front of their St. Louis mansion, said through their lawyer Monday that they felt threatened by two "bad actors" who destroyed an iron gate to their private street and lobbed insults at them.
"My clients, as melanin-deficient human beings, are completely respectful of the message Black Lives Matter needs to get out, especially to whites," said lawyer Albert Watkins. He said the McCloskeys "acted lawfully" out of "fear and apprehension, the genesis of which was not race-related."
But one of the protesters who witnessed the showdown on Portland Place told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch marchers only took notice of the McCloskeys when the couple emerged from their home armed and threatening to kill them.
