Couple who wielded guns against mob sues congresswoman

Mark and Patricia McCloskey defending their St. Louis home June 28, 2020 (Video screenshot)
Mark and Patricia McCloskey defending their St. Louis home June 28, 2020 (Video screenshot)

The Missouri husband and wife who wielded guns as a potentially violent mob marched past their property – and later were charged for their self-defense – now have sued a member of Congress for inciting and then participating in that march.

Courthouse News reports Mark McCloskey and his wife Patricia are accusing a far-left member of Congress, Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., and a state lawmaker of coordinating the mob that descended on their home and terrorized them.

The case also names state Rep. Rasheen Aldridge as a defendant.

“Bush and Aldridge participated, aided and abetted, ratified, tacitly consented to and promoted a pattern of riotous conduct and periodically called out and assembled mobs for the purpose of unlawfully and violently terrorizing the honest residents of St. Louis including plaintiffs,” the case, filed in the circuit Court in the 22nd Judicial Circuit in St. Louis, charges.

The filing charges that Bush and Aldridge both are leaders of a leftist organization called Expect Us.

The McCloskeys, who pleaded guilty to misdemeanors in the situation after they sought and obtained the removal of the prosecutor, said, “Expect Us has been at all times relevant hereto an organization created by the Defendants and utilized for the purpose of employing civil disobedience and mob action to intimidate, frighten and coerce the people and government of St. Louis through racist rhetoric and violent conduct toward persons and property.”

It was on that day, June 28, 2020, that Expect Us set up a “mob” with a plan to “destroy private neighborhoods” and terrorize people, the report explained.

They accuse the defendants of orchestrating the mob that broke into their private gated community and destroyed a 132-year-old historic gate.

“Upon entering Portland Place, the Defendants’ mob, including armed men and men in armor, shouted threats of murder, rape arson[sic] and destruction at the Plaintiffs,” the filing charges.

The McCloskeys said the were forced to defend their home “through the exercise of their Second Amendment rights.”

Reports have said the protesters claimed they were going to then-Mayor Lyda Krewson’s home, which was nearby, and cut through the neighborhood where the McCloskeys live.

The plaintiffs said their self-defense actions “prompted Bush and Aldridge to lead another group back to their property on July 3, 2020, to terrorize them,” the report said.

Courthouse News said, “The incident turned the couple into national folk heroes in conservative circles. They spoke at the Republican National Convention in August 2020 in support of Donald Trump and Second Amendment rights.”

Mark McCloskey now is running for the U.S. Senate, seeking the seat opened by the retirement of Roy Blunt.

The case charges Bush and Aldridge with “at all times relevant” to being “an organizer and leader of an organization called Expect Us.”

That group’s goal has been to “intimidate, frighten and coerce the people and government of St. Louis through racist rhetoric and violent conduct.”

The defendants had openly promoted their plan for violence, the case charges, as they posted a call stating, “They think it’s a game! Plus, we have a surprise.”

The defendants face claims of conspiracy to incite violence, calling for the destruction of property, inciting trespassing and destruction of property.

The action seeks actual and punitive damages.

The McCloskeys eventually were pardoned by the governor, which triggered Bush to unleash a vitriolic rant at them.

She even threatened Mark McCloskey.

“His day will come,” Bush said of Mark McCloskey, who with his wife was pardoned by Missouri Gov. Mike Parson for minor gun charges that stemmed from their decision to protect their property when one a march a crowd to their property, and they didn’t know the intention.

Bush, who was in the march that went to the McCloskey property, charged that “Mark McCloskey is an absolute liar. He has spat on my name. And because of that, his day will come.”

The case has included several odd turns. For one thing, the local prosecutor decided against charging any of the marchers from that day, irrespective of their actions.

Then she charged the McCloskeys for holding weapons.

Then she was ordered off the case by an appeals court that ruled she had tried to advance herself politically using the case.

Then McCloskeys pleaded guilty to minor counts, lost their weapons, and obtained new ones.

Fox News explained that Bush “was outraged,” and “explode[d]” over the pardons.

Mark and Patricia McCloskey defending their St. Louis home June 28, 2020 (Video screenshot)

She claimed, apparently addressing McCloskey, “You will not be successful in all that you’re trying to do, when you are hurting the very people that are out trying to save lives … He can try it, but I will not stand by and allow him or our governor to hurt the very people that are doing the work that they should be doing.”

The McCloskeys have explained that when the mob approached their home, they called 911 asking for help but officers failed to show up.

The couple reported mob members threatened them: “We were told that we would be killed, our home burned and our dog killed. We were all alone facing an angry mob.”


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