On May 26, 2023, pro-life advocates Mark Crosby, then 73 years old, and Dick Schaefer, then 84 years old, were praying, holding pro-life signs, and offering pro-life materials to people entering a Baltimore Planned Parenthood, Catholic Review said.
Outside the abortion facility, a male by the name of Patrick Brice reportedly was arguing with Schaefer about abortion.
‘I was shocked.’
Brice — a decades-younger male whom Crosby estimates stands well over 6 feet tall and weighed 250 pounds — then is seen on surveillance video actually charging at Schaefer and tackling the 84-year-old backward into a large flower pot.
Image source: Baltimore Police
Image source: Baltimore Police
Image source: Baltimore Police
According to WBAL-TV, a witness said Schaefer was out cold “for several minutes.”
As you might expect, Crosby — dressed in a blue and white “pro-life” T-shirt — comes over to help his friend.
Image source: Baltimore Police
But Brice is in Crosby’s path.
Image source: Baltimore Police
And Brice easily knocks the 73-year-old down to the sidewalk.
Image source: Baltimore Police
Image source: Baltimore Police
One might be inclined to assume Brice by this point would make his exit — but alas, no. Instead he proceeds to pulverize his next victim.
First he punches Crosby in the head.
Image source: Baltimore Police
Image source: Baltimore Police
Then Brice rears back his right foot and kicks Crosby in the face before finally walking away.
Image source: Baltimore Police
Image source: Baltimore Police
Image source: Baltimore Police
It should be noted that YouTube age-restricted the Baltimore Police video of the attack on Schaefer and Crosby, so you can only view it there.
Here’s a local video report, though.
Local pro-life advocate John Roswell told LifeSiteNews at the time of the attack that Crosby’s “plate bone in his upper right cheek is completely fractured” and that he “is bleeding from some unidentified area behind his eye, and the bone eye orbit is completely shattered and will have to be replaced with metal” as a result of the brutal beatdown.
Crosby told Blaze News that he was blind in his right eye “for nine days” after the attack, that he spent three days at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, that he was “spitting blood,” and that a piece of his iris is missing.
Image source: John Roswell/American Center for Law and Justice (left); Mark Crosby (right), both used by permission
He also told Blaze News he still experiences foreign body sensation, which is a “feeling that something’s in your eye and you can’t get it out. But I can live with that. Babies are being murdered. I give it up for them.”
A few weeks after the attack, police released surveillance images of the culprit. However, for the next year, nothing but crickets.
Brice arrested
Police finally arrested Brice on July 1, 2024, and he was indicted on charges of first-degree assault, second-degree assault, and assault on an elderly person 65 and over, according to the American Center for Law and Justice. He was released on his own recognizance, Catholic Review said.
The criminal trial for Brice took place in early February 2025 in Baltimore Circuit Court. The Baltimore Banner reported that Brice, 28, exercised his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and did not testify.
But Brice’s attorney — Assistant Public Defender Matthew Connell — argued that his client didn’t intend to cause serious physical injury, which is needed to support a conviction for first-degree assault, the Banner said.
Connell also called Schaefer and Crosby “old white men” who say “the most vile things” to women and see themselves as “religious martyrs,” Catholic Review reported.
“Somebody snapped on them,” Connell argued, according to the Banner.
The attacker’s attorney added that his client “didn’t mean to hurt them that bad” and “made a mistake,” the Banner reported.
Crosby told Blaze News that video of Brice’s beatdown of him and Schaefer was shown in court and that one juror was “crying,” while “others were looking away” from the violence onscreen.
Assistant State’s Attorney Ashley Sudberry in her opening remarks called Brice’s attack “brazen, callous, barbaric behavior,” Catholic Review said. She concluded that “Mr. Brice is a grown man. He’s not a child. He knew what he was doing,” the Banner said.
RELATED: HS official screams at teen pro-life activists: ‘I don’t give a f*** what you think Jesus tells me’
Patrick Brice. Image source: Mark Crosby, used by permission
Hung jury on most serious charge for attack on Crosby
The jury deliberated for about two hours and convicted Brice on two counts of second-degree assault and reckless endangerment for his attacks on Schaefer and Crosby, the Banner said.
However, jurors acquitted Brice on one count of first-degree assault against Schaefer, the paper said.
As for the first-degree assault charge against Brice for attacking Crosby — knocking him to the ground, punching him in his head, and kicking him in his face while he was on his back on the sidewalk — the Banner said the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict.
Crosby was then left waiting for justice.
Attorney Terrell Roberts — retained by the Thomas More Society to assist Crosby amid deliberations — told Blaze News that Brice’s misdemeanor convictions for second-degree assault and reckless endangerment don’t include jail time in sentencing guidelines. The Banner also reported that Brice had no previous criminal record.
Roberts told Blaze News that while Brice’s attack on Crosby was a “pretty egregious act,” there’s a “good chance” a judge might not sentence Brice to any jail time.
But soon there was some good news for Crosby. The Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office in March said it would retry Brice on the first-degree assault charge, the Baltimore Banner reported.
Roberts told Blaze News that part of getting a first-degree assault conviction on Brice — which could result in a jail sentence of 25 years — would be showing how badly impaired Crosby’s vision became after his attack. Roberts said the damage to Crosby’s right eye — specifically the iris — is “permanent” and Crosby suffers from “extreme photosensitivity,” meaning that he essentially has the use of only one eye, which is a “serious disability.”
He also told Blaze News that the prosecution would be able to present other documentation, such as the CT scan of Crosby’s head, which showed that the “floor of the orbital bone was fractured so badly” that fat actually was seeping through it.
“We have to win this,” Crosby told Blaze News in the aftermath of the new trial announcement, adding that he believes Brice has “got to go to jail, or the pro-aborts will think they can get away with this.”
New trial, old story
Circuit Judge Yvette M. Bryant — who presided over February’s jury trial for Brice — also presided over Wednesday’s retrial of Brice’s first-degree assault charge, the Baltimore Banner reported.
At the conclusion of the bench trial — there was no jury this time — Bryant acquitted Brice of first-degree assault, the Banner said.
Her reason? The paper said the judge concluded that it was all about Crosby’s intent. Does video of the attack show him rushing over to help his friend? Or does it show 73-year-old Crosby running over to fight Brice — a bigger, taller 20-something who just knocked Schaefer out cold?
The Banner said Bryant agreed that Brice’s attack against Crosby was unjustified — but disagreed with the prosecution’s contention that it was unprovoked.
Gavel down. Case closed. Brice is scheduled for an Aug. 7 sentencing, the paper said, adding that he’s free on his own recognizance. Roberts noted to Blaze News that Brice’s acquittal means he can’t be tried again on the same charge.
‘This decision is one for the ages’
A flabbergasted Roberts in the aftermath of Bryant’s decision told Blaze News that “this decision is one for the ages,” adding that it was a “miscarriage of justice.”
“I was shocked,” he noted to Blaze News.
“The judge misapplied Maryland law,” Roberts added to Blaze News. “She regarded Crosby’s conduct as a provocation which lessened Brice’s culpability. But it’s clear from the evidence that Crosby’s conduct was not a legal provocation. Crosby had a right to come and aid his friend, who had just been knocked unconscious. That cannot in any way legally be a provocation.”
He added to Blaze News that it was the “most ridiculous decision I’ve seen in a long while.”
“How can you claim a 73-year-old man provoked a man who just knocked out an 84-year-old man? It’s legally absurd,” Roberts remarked to Blaze News, adding that “any judge would have to find him guilty based on the video.”
The Banner also reported that the judge read portions of Crosby’s medical records in court, saying that he ignored directives from nurses and other hospital staff. In the end, Bryant deemed Crosby’s testimony unreliable, the paper added.
Roberts told Blaze News he found it odd that Bryant focused so much of her attention on Crosby’s interactions with nurses and hospital staff, as recorded in his medical records, instead of “what really mattered” in those records — namely, the severity of his injuries due to Brice’s actions.
What’s more, Crosby told Blaze News that Bryant stated in court that he could have “gone around Brice to help Dick Schaefer” rather than taking a path directly to his friend to give him aid. “So she’s blaming me. … I’m the bad guy.”
A frustrated Crosby added to Blaze News that “now the pro-abort movement will know this, and violence will continue against us.”
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Crime, Planned parenthood, Pro-life, Baltimore, Patrick brice, Mark crosby, Dick schaefer, Physical attack, Arrest, Assault charges, 1st-degree assault, Judge, Court hearing, Circuit judge yvette m. bryant, Bench trial, Violence against pro-life activists, Politics
