Patrick Brice said he was having a bad day.

On May 26, 2023, Brice said, he intended to debate Richard Schaefer outside the Planned Parenthood Baltimore Health Center on North Howard Street about the concept of sin.

But Brice said he lost it after Schaefer made what he perceived to be a racial comment. That’s when Brice tackled him into a flowerpot and then attacked another anti-abortion protester, Mark Crosby, who rushed to Schaefer’s aid.

“I just snapped one day,” Brice said Thursday in the Elijah E. Cummings Courthouse before apologizing to both men.

Though prosecutors pushed for a sentence of 10 years in prison, Baltimore Circuit Judge Yvette M. Bryant spared Brice, 28, now of Harford County, incarceration. She ordered him to spend one year on home detention — plus three years’ probation.

Brice must complete anger management classes, undergo drug and alcohol screening, take part in any recommended treatment and remain in therapy. That’s along with virtually attending Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings.

“What about my rights and my well-being?” Crosby shouted at Bryant as she left the bench.

Surveillance cameras captured the assault.

At the time, Schaefer was 84. Crosby was 73.

Schaefer refused medical attention.

Meanwhile, Crosby spent three days at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center and twice landed back in the emergency room. He suffered injuries including an orbital fracture, and the attack has left him with permanent damage to his right eye.

A jury found Brice guilty of two counts of second-degree assault and reckless endangerment.

Assistant Public Defender Matthew Connell, Brice’s attorney, said his client has always expressed regret for the crime.

“I’ve never tried to justify this, nor has Mr. Brice,” Connell said. “He is remorseful.”

Brice is religious and spiritual and served as a Christian camp counselor for 10 years. He now works for a food catering service. Since his arrest, he’s received death threats, Connell said.

Three family members, including Brice’s cousin, Paula Scharf, spoke about his difficult childhood. Both his parents died of cancer.

“I’m just here to support him,” Scharf said. “He’s always been a good kid.”

But Assistant State’s Attorney Ashley Sudberry urged the judge to send a message with her sentence that attacking two older men in broad daylight on the street in Baltimore for their religious or political views will not be tolerated.

Crosby’s attorney, Terrell Roberts, read a lengthy statement on his behalf in which he wrote that the attack demonstrated a “gross disregard for the law and human decency.”

“We were in no position to defend ourselves,” Crosby wrote. “To treat elderly folks with that kind of brutality is shocking.”

Schaefer reiterated that there was no justification for the attack.

And no matter what happened in court, Schaefer said, he would be back on the sidewalk outside Planned Parenthood.