An anchor for the news outlet that hired a security guard suspected of fatally shooting a protester this weekend mocked residents who were fearful of Colorado’s protests earlier this year.
“Shame to think there are people cowering in the suburbs, cleaning their guns, peeking through the blinds wondering if every person of the color outside is Antifa. If you’re afraid to come into Denver because of talk radio fear-mongering, you’re missing out on a lot,” 9News anchor Kyle Clark tweeted on Sept. 26.
The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway called attention to the tweet on Sunday.
“This Denver Channel 9 news anchor mocked viewers who were concerned about Denver’s riots and accused critics of the violent Antifa movement of racism, without evidence. Channel 9 hired the ‘security guard’ being held for a shooting death in Denver yesterday,” she wrote.
Matthew Dolloff, 30, was arrested and charged this weekend in connection to shooting and killing Denver-area hatter Lee Keltner, who was attending a “patriot” rally in the city.
9News hired Dolloff as a security guard to accompany its team to the rally on Saturday.
“A private security guard who was hired by 9NEWS is the suspect detained by DPD,” 9NEWS reported. “It has been the practice of 9NEWS for a number of months to hire private security to accompany staff at protests.”
The Denver Department of Excise and Licenses said it has no record of Dolloff being a licensed security guard, and a department spokesman added that Dolloff was breaking the law if he was, in fact, acting in that capacity during Saturday’s protests.
“If he was operating as a security guard, he was in violation of the law,” said Eric Escudero, a department spokesman. “Security guards are prohibited from carrying or using a firearm without getting an armed firearm endorsement for their license. All security guards in Denver are required to get a federal background check before they receive their license.”
The shooting unfolded Saturday afternoon after the anti-communist “Patriot Muster” rally kicked off.
“It’s time we let these communist socialists know we have had enough,” a description of the event stated. “Fight back, push back. Time to take our country back!”
A Denver Communists group responded to news of the event by holding a counterprotest called the “BLM-Antifa Soup Drive.”
“We scheduled our action after learning that the militia-fascists had called a ‘patriot muster’ against the Black Lives Matter movement, anti-fascists, and Marxists,” a representative for Denver Communists said. “That’s us — guilty as charged and happy to oblige with our presence.”
The victim, Keltner, was identified by his mother on Facebook this weekend.
“My son Lee was at the patriot rally today in Denver,” Keltner’s mother, Carole, posted on the Northeast Arkansas Tea Party Facebook group. “He was murdered because he backed the police.”
“His 24-year-old son was with him,” she continued. “I moved to Arkansas because Colorado got too expensive and liberal. The left has gotten out of hand.”