Former Gov. Eric Greitens has accused his successor of having a "cowardice problem" for failing to dispatch state troopers to a St. Louis residence where a couple brandished firearms while protestors walked down a road.
Gov. Mike Parson responded by stating that the couple, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, had every right to defend their home. The couple held a rifle and hand gun as Black Lives Matters protestors walked down the street.
Speaking on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight show, Greitens said, “You have some Republicans whose cowardice and complicity is also accelerating and fueling the problem here. There is no leadership, there is no direction.”
In response, Parson, at a news briefing at the Capitol last week, said, "Law enforcement on that night was available. … We weren’t notified through the governor’s office, through the Highway Patrol — was not notified of that situation. However, that being said, that couple had every right to protect their property.”
Parson criticized St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner, who he said was “attempting to take their constitutional rights away.”
On July 10, police searched the McCloskeys’ home on Portland Place. They found a rifle, while the handgun was later handed over to investigators.
Parson suggested that the city attorney should be removed from office, but added that it was “very difficult” to remove an elected prosecutor. It is “one of the things” the Legislature needed to address in the future, he said.
The governor added that he talked to spoke with President Donald Trump before the briefing to the press.
Gardner, the city's first black prosecutor, has been the subject of attacks, mostly by Republicans. She is being investigated by a special prosecutor appointed to probe her role in the ouster of Greitens, who resigned after it emerged he was having an extramarital affair.
Gardner filed a civil rights suit earlier this year claiming the city of St. Louis and the police union of being involved in a “racially-motivated conspiracy" against her.