October 10, 2020 07:29 PM UTC

One Dead After Dueling Downtown Denver Rallies Turn Violent

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: 9NEWS reporting that the security guard arrested after today’s shooting worked for them:

DPD has since said that one of the two people taken into custody was not involved in the incident but was a person of interest at the time. The 9NEWS producer is no longer in police custody and is not a suspect.

A private security guard who was hired by 9NEWS is the suspect detained by DPD. It has been the practice of 9NEWS for a number of months to hire private security to accompany staff at protests.

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The fatal confrontation captured in a photo by @denverpost photographer @hrichardson, who was was taken for a statement by @DenverPolice. https://t.co/AcaCG3aID7 pic.twitter.com/dluQ803qW3

— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) October 11, 2020

As the Denver Post reports:

One person has died and another man, who police said was a private security guard, is in custody after a shooting during dueling protests Saturday in downtown Denver…

The incident occurred after a man participating in what was billed a “Patriot Rally” sprayed mace at another man. That man then shot the other individual with a handgun near the courtyard outside the Denver Art Museum, according to a Denver Post journalist who witnessed the incident.

Denverite:

The competing rallies appeared to be wrapping up when the gun went off. The man who was shot fell over, and was loaded into an ambulance. The man who fired the gun was immediately surrounded by police, who zip-tied his hands…

The first rally was planned by John “Tig” Tiegen, an El Paso County resident and a part of President Donald Trump’s reelection effort in Colorado. He organized what he called a “Patriot Muster.” He promoted it over the last week to his tens of thousands of social media followers, and repeatedly on the conservative talk radio station KNUS.

In response, the Denver Communists, Colorado Socialist Revolution and other groups organized what they called “A Black Lives Matter Anti-Fascist Soup Drive.” That appears to be a reference to Trump’s July claim that protesters had assaulted police officers with cans of soup. The event’s original title was “Rally to Oppose Fascism.”

Denver Police are stating in response to inquiries that the alleged shooter was not connected to the left-wing protesters on the scene, but was a private security guard working for an as-yet unknown party:

Update: Further investigation has determined the suspect is a private security guard with no affiliation with Antifa. Additional information will be released as it becomes available.

— Denver Police Dept. (@DenverPolice) October 11, 2020

We’ll update when more information is available, as we urge everyone to seek out credible sources of information about what happened here instead of the wild speculation presently dominating social media.