The article clearly states that was already a known issue with the gate....take a minute to look at the article posted and click on the "photos of gate" hyperlink.....didnt see anything about backyard, but their house was the first house and people did walk by and stayed on the sidewalk and yeah some people did have a problem with having a gun waved at them for just walking by on their way to the mayors house...and it wasn't their gate, it was a gate at the entrance of the neighborhood for access to the neighborhood which was beside the larger gate that allows cars through
"The McCloskeys claimed the protesters broke through the neighborhood’s gate before charging up to their private property. They and their supporters have cited
photos of the gate broken into pieces as proof that the demonstrators violently came through.
But an
investigation by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch indicated the gate was open before the protesters walked through. The investigation also
found that the McCloskeys, in a previous lawsuit against their neighborhood trustees, knew the gate was in bad shape, arguing that the trustees didn’t maintain or repair it. So the gate could have been broken on accident as the protesters walked through, not due to an act of violence."
