New and Troubling Questions About Murder at Rally in Denver
In this story hours ago I wrote about the discovery of the left-wing protest connections of Denver murder suspect Matthew Dolloff, who shot and killed Lee Keltner, an attendee at the “Patriot Muster” pro-Trump rally. For the last sentence of my story, I wrote “I suspect there will be more to this story as the next few days unfold.”
The only thing I got wrong was the “days” part. There is a lot more to the story this morning.
First, Dolloff was not a licensed security guard. The City of Denver has a municipal ordinance requiring anyone employed as a “security guard” to possess a city license authorizing the person to work in that capacity inside Denver city limits. To get the license the applicant must complete the specified training. If the applicant is to be armed as a security guard, he must undergo some additional training, and pass a firearms proficiency course. If the security guard is going to work in a “plain clothes” capacity — as Dolloff was — he must undergo even more training before getting the license. An official for the City of Denver licensing department responded to a news inquiry that they have no application or file for anyone named Matthew Dolloff as holding the necessary license issued by the City of Denver.
Second, Dolloff didn’t work for Pinkerton as claimed by “9News”, the NBC affiliate station in Denver who said they hired him to be security for their news crew at the protest. A statement issued by Pinkerton on Sunday said they did not employ Dolloff, but that he worked for a contractor. I’m not sure exactly what that means, but it could be that Pinkerton contracts with a local security company to provide manpower when Pinkerton has a contract in a location not close to one of their offices. Or it could be that Pinkerton has licensed use of their name to independently owned companies, and those independent companies employ the individual security guards.
Third, at least one well-known field reporter for 9News — Kyle Clark — is identified by a BLM/Antifa website as being “one of us” in a Twitter comment saying the 9News reporter didn’t need security because they would protect him “Kyle is one of us.” More on this below.
Fourth, there was a still photographer within 10 feet of the incident that led to Mr. Kelter’s murder, and she captured the entire sequence in a series of still photographs that have now been posted online in dozens of pieces of “analyses” of the shooting. These still photographs show that in the 2-3 seconds before the fatal shot was fired, Mr. Kelter used his left hand to strike an open-handed blow with his palm to the right side of Dolloff’s face. But the blow does not look unprovoked. Mr. Keltner is carrying a mace canister in his right hand, and as the photographs shown below seem to demonstrate, Dolloff was reaching for the canister with his left hand at the same moment Keltner struck him with his left hand. But there appear to be photos missing from the sequence — photographs that would show Dolloff drawing his firearm with his right hand. Those photographs would be important in determining whether Dolloff drew his firearm in response to something Keltner did, or if he drew his firearm BEFORE Keltner did anything to prompt Dolloff to do so.
But before the shooting, the one seemingly near complete video of the incident also raises a series of questions about Dolloff’s presence, the presence of the 9News crew, the presence of the still photographer, AND serious questions about whether there were OTHER “security” agents present who have not yet been identified in the press. From the video I have a suspicion about one who quickly departed the scene just seconds after the video.
Below is the video reposted. After the video are some of my observations based on what I see, and questions I would have as a prosecutor trying to sort out the facts here. If you haven’t seen this yet, be advised that it is graphic and ends with the shooting of Mr. Keltner.
As you can see, the video is almost entirely one individual wearing a “Black Guns Matter” shirt — I’m going to refer to him as “Mr. BGM” — standing off against a group of persons who were presumably there to attend the “Patriot Muster” rally.
At the start, the exchange does not seem agitated or escalated between Mr. BGM and three men standing shoulder-to-shoulder. Mr. Keltner is the man in the middle, wearing the soft floppy hat. He has Mr. Red on his right, and Mr. Tan Hat on his left.
At the :07 mark, the person with the camera gets closer to the group, and you can now see Mr. BGM become irritated and turn belligerent, and shouts “Shoot me m****herf***er.
At :09, Mr. Tan Hat steps in between Mr. BGM and Mr. Keltner, and extends his arms out in both directions creating separation between them. In response Mr. BGM says very menacingly “Don’t f****n touch me. Touch me one more time and you’re going to get it.”
At this point, :10 on the video, you see someone who caught my interest — Mr. White, wearing a white shirt and red bandana, behind Mr. BGM. Mr. White gives the impression that he is serving as backup for Mr. BGM. When Mr. Tan Hat gets between Mr. BGH and Mr. Keltner, pushing them away from each other — with Mr. BGM responding with a threat — Mr. White moves a couple steps closer behind Mr. BGM, coming within about five feet of him.
At the :16 mark, Mr. BGM is yelling at Mr. Keltner to “Mace me m****herf***er”, and Mr. White is immediately to his left and a step or two behind him as if he’s ready to get involved. Mr. White then backs away towards the fence behind them as Mr. BGM continues to yell at challenge Mr. Keltner to use his mace on him.
As the exchange between Mr. BGM and Mr. Keltner continues to escalate, Mr. Tan Hat tries to stay positioned between them. At :32-25 seconds you can’t see anyone in the frame of the video to the right side, but something over there gets Mr. Keltner’s attention as he first looks in that direction, and then walks in that direction, out of the frame of the video.
When I first watched the video, I thought Mr. White ended up as the shooter. It wasn’t until I saw the still photographs that I realized that the shooter, Dolloff, was present the entire time just outside the frame of the video to the right of the argument being captured. Also close to Dolloff is a Denver Post photographer wearing an orange vest and carrying a camera with a long lens.
At :37 seconds Mr. Keltner leaves the frame of the video. Mr. BGM directs his attention to 3-4 persons still in the first group that he began the confrontation with.
At :43 the video starts to pan to the right and you can see Mr. Keltner taking a step back just before you hear the gunshot, and he falls directly onto his back.
At that point, the person with the camera loses momentary control in reaction to the gunshot, and the video ends one second later.
What is unknown at this point is what got Mr. Keltner’s attention and caused him to walk in Dolloff’s direction — away from Mr. BGM seven seconds before Dolloff shot him.
Michelle Malkin set out a very informative Tweet string on Sunday night about her experiences using Pinkerton as security for her book tour — all the different kinds of paperwork that SHOULD exist for the contractual relationship between 9News and Pinkerton.
But I suspect we’re going to find out that it doesn’t exist. Here is my SUPPOSITION about that I THINK the facts might turn out to be:
Someone in the 9News team was given the task of obtaining security for the news crew covering the “Patriot Muster” rally. That person did so and SAID they hired Pinkerton. What they really did, however, was hire a local security firm that has — in the past — done contract work for Pinkerton. I’m going to guess that we are going to find out that Dolloff knew one or more of the news crew separate from the security work — maybe thought left-wing protest activities. As I noted above, Kyle Clark of 9News is described in a Tweet by the BLM/Antifa account “@Saytheirnames6” as “one of us”, and that he would not need security at a BLM/Antifa protest because they would protect him.
I SUSPECT we are going to learn that the 9News crew usually covers these protests from the BLM/Antifa side of the event — so they have security with them that is likely to be sympathetic, rather than antagonistic, towards the group they are going to intermingle with. They had security to protect 9News from what they perceived would be the most threat to them — the “Patriot Muster” crowd. The second person arrested – but released shortly after — was the 9News producer who was filming the confrontation between Mr. BGM and the group from behind Mr. BGM.
Michelle Malkin lives in Colorado, and she Tweeted that 9News is well-known for having extreme left-wing radicals in their newsroom.
Like I said — many more questions than answers. Look for my story later on “self-defense” in Colorado and Dolloff’s predicament.
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