{"id":51043,"date":"2020-10-11T03:17:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-11T09:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-shooting-amid-denver-protests-leaves-man-dead-9news-guard-idd\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:54:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:54:38","slug":"update-shooting-amid-denver-protests-leaves-man-dead-9news-guard-idd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-shooting-amid-denver-protests-leaves-man-dead-9news-guard-idd\/","title":{"rendered":"Update: Shooting amid Denver protests leaves man dead; 9News guard ID\u2019d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A man later identified at Matthew Dolloff, 30, is taken into custody after allegedly fatally shooting another man, Saturday in downtown Denver during competing rallies at Civic Center Park.<\/span>Helen H. Richardson\/The Denver Post<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A shooting Saturday afternoon in Denver amid chaotic political protests left a man dead and police have taken a security guard working for a television station into custody as a suspect.<\/p>\n

Denver police said the shooting happened about 3:30 p.m. near the intersection of West 14th Avenue and Broadway, just outside of the Denver Art Museum. It is being investigated as a homicide.<\/p>\n

Investigators initially said two people had been arrested in connection with the shooting, but then revised their statement. They say the suspect they have in custody is a private security guard. The department said the suspect has no connection to \u201cantifa\u201d groups.<\/p>\n

Denver television station 9News reported Saturday night that the guard is a Pinkerton contractor who had been hired to provide security for the station\u2019s reporters at protests.<\/p>\n

\"Matthew
Matthew Dolloff<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

On Sunday, the Denver Police Department identified the guard as Matthew Dolloff, 30, and announced he was being held for investigation of first-degree murder.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis remains an active investigation,\u201d the Denver Police Department said in a tweet. \u201cAny additional updates will be released as it becomes available.\u201d<\/p>\n

A decision on any charges will be up to the Denver District Attorney\u2019s Office, police said. According to The Associated Press, spokesperson for District Attorney Beth McCann said Sunday that the arrest affidavit in the case remained sealed and referred further questions to the police.<\/p>\n

\u201cA private security guard who was hired by 9News is the suspect detained by DPD,\u201d the station reported in an online story. \u201cIt has been the practice of 9News for a number of months to hire private security to accompany staff at protests.\u201d<\/p>\n

The station \u2014 also known by its call sign, KUSA-TV \u2014 said one of its producers also was taken into custody following the shooting. Dolloff is a contractor who was accompanying one of its producers at the demonstrations Saturday at Civic Center Park, 9News said.<\/p>\n

Station manager Mark Cornetta said the producer has been released from custody.<\/p>\n

Videos taken at the scene showed a confrontation in a crowd of people near the Denver Art Museum followed by a single gunshot being fired. Police quickly rushed in, apparently detaining one person and tending to someone who was laying motionless on the ground.<\/p>\n

Videos and photos of the shooting show Dolloff firing a single shot at a man after an altercation. It appears the man may have fired mace at Dolloff.<\/p>\n\n

Denver police Division Chief Joe Montoya told reporters at a news conference that a verbal altercation preceded the shooting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were two guns recovered at the scene,\u201d Montoya said, adding that mace was also found by investigators.<\/p>\n

Montoya initially said it was unclear if the victim and suspect were affiliated with any groups.<\/p>\n

But then, in a tweet Saturday night, Denver police said that \u201cfurther investigation has determined the suspect is a private security guard with no affiliation with antifa.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAntifa\u201d is a left-wing political protest movement.<\/p>\n

The person killed in the confrontation has been identified only as a man.<\/p>\n

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock offered condolences to the family of the victim and defended the city\u2019s police department in a thread of tweets Saturday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur thoughts are with the family of the victim of the shooting that took place today,\u201d Hancock wrote. \u201cI am not going to comment on the details as it is still under investigation, and its connection or not to either demonstration hasn\u2019t been determined.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wrote that Denver police \u201cendeavor to do their best to keep people safe, even in tense situations with protests and counter protests. I am grateful for their difficult work today. These are volatile times.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we encourage peaceful protest, we will never tolerate demonstrations escalating to clashes and violence. Political differences should be resolved at the ballot box and not in the streets, and we will keep it that way through this election season and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
A man sprays mace, left, as another man fires a gun Saturday in downtown Denver during competing rallies at Civic Center Park.<\/span>Helen H. Richardson\/The Denver Post<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Denverite reports the shooting happened amid competing demonstrations in Denver\u2019s Civic Center Park. The news outlet says one group, led by conservative activist John Tiegen, was holding a \u201cPatriot Muster\u201d while the other was holding a \u201cA Black Lives Matter Anti-Fascist Soup Drive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tiegen, who lives in southern Colorado, is also well known for surviving the 2012 attack on an American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, where he was working on a security team.<\/p>\n

Authorities say the demonstrations were wrapping up when the shooting happened.<\/p>\n

Police did not release further details on the shooting. They said more information will be released once it becomes available.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want any erroneous information going out, any speculation, because that\u2019s really what hurts us,\u201d Montoya said. \u201cThat\u2019s what gets everybody angry and motivated to commit more violence. And that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to prevent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, journalist-owned news outlet exploring issues of statewide interest. Sign up for a newsletter and read more at coloradosun.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Videos showed a confrontation in a crowd, a single gunshot<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,233,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-51043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87885,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51043\/revisions\/87885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51043"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=51043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}