The trial for a man accused of brutally beating two Catholic pro-life sidewalk counselors outside of a Baltimore Planned Parenthood is set to begin Wednesday.
Jury selection begins at 9:00 a.m. local time at Baltimore City Court for the trial of 27-year-old Patrick Brice, who is charged over the beating of then 80-year-old Dick Schaefer and 73-year-old Mark Crosby on May 26, 2023. The two men were outside a Planned Parenthood in Baltimore when they were left bloodied after they were violently attacked.
Brice has been charged with two counts of first-degree assault, two counts of second-degree assault, and two counts of reckless endangerment.
No arrests were made until over a year after the attack on July 1, 2024, when law enforcement identified Brice as the man behind the attack. The entire incident was caught on camera, and surveillance footage shows a man tackling Schaefer into a large potted plant. Crosby then ran over to help Schaefer before he was forced to the ground. The man in the video punches Crosby in the face and kicks him in the head.
Recounting the incident on Tuesday, Crosby told The Daily Wire that incident started after the attacker started an argument with Schaefer about abortion while outside of Planned Parenthood. He said he then saw the attacker “get in a football rushing position” before running Schaefer into a concrete planter and against the wall.
When Crosby ran over to help, he said that Brice “hit me a couple times” before forcing him to the ground. He then said that Brice “reared back” and “kicked me as hard as he could.”
The attack left Crosby seriously injured and hospitalized. After the incident, he was treated for a fractured bone in his face, blindness in one eye, head and neck pain, two fractured fingers, and bruising on his arms and legs.
Mark Crosby (Courtesy: Jay Walton)
Despite the attack and future hostile encounters with Planned Parenthood employees, Crosby said both men have frequently returned to the Planned Parenthood. He said Schaefer still stood outside five days a week and that he would “back in action” after the trial ended.
Crosby said he wished that local Catholic leadership had been more outspoken in supporting them, noting that the Planned Parenthood where the attack took place is only a five minute walk away from the Baltimore Basilica, the first Catholic church built in the United States after it declared independence.
Crosby told The Daily Wire that he was being represented by the Thomas More Society, while Schaefer had the counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice.
