Guard faces murder charge in demonstrator death
DENVER — A television station security guard accused of fatally shooting a pro-police demonstrator following opposing rallies was charged Monday with second-degree murder, according to the Denver district court clerk’s office.
The charges in the death of Lee Keltner, 49, were filed to the district court against Matthew Dolloff, 30, who was protecting a KUSA-TV producer at the time of the incident.
The next hearing is set for Wednesday morning, according to the district court clerk’s office. No attorney has been listed for Dolloff in court records.
People convicted of second-degree murder face a mandatory sentence of 16 to 48 years in prison.
Police say Keltner was in a verbal dispute with a 27-year-old man as the rallies broke up Saturday when Dolloff and a 25-year-old person got into an altercation with Keltner.
Keltner slapped Dolloff in the head and Dolloff pulled out a semiautomatic handgun and shot Keltner as Keltner discharged pepper spray at him, police said in an arrest affidavit.
A cellphone video taken by KUSA’S producer suggests Keltner was upset his dispute with the first man was being recorded by cameras.
It shows Keltner in a confrontation with a man wearing a T-shirt that read, “Black Guns Matter.” A bystander is trying to defuse the argument, which occurred after a “Patriot Muster” demonstration and “Blm-antifa Soup Drive” counterprotest downtown.
Keltner and Dolloff are then shown scuffling before the video stops. The producer resumes filming after the shooting and tells arriving police that he is with the press and says of the man who was shot, “That guy was going to get me.”
Police said they found two guns but they have not explained to whom they belonged.