St. Louis attorney Mark McCloskey, who, with his wife Patricia, is facing criminal charges for holding a gun while confronting protesters near his property in June, said Wednesday it was a "frightening experience," but denied media reports that the group was passing their house to head toward St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson's home.
"We were sitting on the patio that was maybe 70 feet from the gate that separates Portland Place from King's Highway," McCloskey said on Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "We started hearing the protests going down the street, maybe 300 yards away ... then all of a sudden, Kings Highway fills from wall-to-wall, 100 feet wide and completely filled with people."
He said the crowd smashed down the gate leading into the private community where they live, and there were hundreds of protesters.
But when he yelled that they were coming onto private property, "that seemed to enrage them," and he got his rifle. His wife tried to call 911, but when she saw the crowd approaching the front door of the house, she grabbed a handgun to keep them at bay.
Meanwhile, Krewson does not live in the neighborhood but lives 3 blocks north and about a half-mile west, said McCloskey. To get to her house, the crowd would have had to walk another half mile and then turn down another street and break down a second gate.
"It's commonly reported that they were walking peacefully to the mayor's house but they were not," he said.
He also commented that the crowd was "screaming the most vile insults" about his wife, but he wasn't paying attention to that while trying to keep them out of his house.
McCloskey further told the program that he's never threatened anyone at his property with his guns drawn, but he insisted he and his wife had a right to do what they did.
"Every single person in that neighborhood was trespassing," he said. "They are admitted criminals and none of those people have been charged with anything. We are the only people who have been charged."