On Saturday, Lee Keltner, a 49-year-old hat maker, was shot and killed after he attended a “Patriots Muster” rally in Denver, CO. According to the Denver Police, 30-year-old Matthew Dolloff is being held for Investigation of First Degree Murder in connection with the shooting. Dolloff was apparently hired as a “security guard” by local TV station 9News to protect its film crew covering the event.

After the shooting, 9 News was quick to report Dolloff had no connection to Antifa.

By all accounts it appears the “dueling rallies” (as described by the Denver Post) featured participants yelling insults at each other, but that’s about it. The police presence was prominent and well-armed.

The Patriots Muster rally, led by John “Tig” Tiegen, gathered in the Civic Center’s and according to reports, attendees “occasionally chanted patriotic songs and held up banners.”

Across the park’s amphitheater, the Denver communists had organized the “BLM-Antifa Soup Drive.”

On the event flyer, attendees were invited to:

Join the Denver Communists, Colorado Socialist Revolution, Anon Resistance Movement, W.I.T.C.H. Denver, H.O.E.S. (Help on Every Street), Front Range Mutual Aid Network, and more for a Black Lives Matter Anti-Fascist Soup Drive & Pop-up Communist Bookswap!

Additionally, we will be counter protesting a fascist rally that is supposed to happen at the same time and place! The plan is to outnumber and outshine the fascists, set up our tables and tents in Civic Center Park, as near as we can be to the fascists.

We want to send these worms back into their holes, demoralized and isolated, with other their racist rapist president to console them. We’ll have soup for our family, music, speakers, communist books, and plenty of angry anti-fascists chants.

However, after the rallies ended, and people were leaving, it went horribly wrong. A “livestreamer” named Brian Loma captured the moment Keltner was shot.

Photos taken at the scene show even greater detail.

Keltner and Dolloff appear to be involved in a verbal altercation, during which Keltner slaps Dolloff, knocking off his hat and glasses.

(Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)

In the moment before the shooting, the men have separated, but Dolloff is apparently reaching for his firearm, as Keltner clutches a can of mace.

(Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)

At the moment of the shooting, Keltner is spraying mace as Dolloff has his weapon raised.

(Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)

But some observers have noted the slide of Dolloff’s pistol is already seen cycling as Keltner uses pepper spray – in other words, Keltner only deployed pepper spray after Dolloff pointed a gun at him.

It’s also unclear whether Dolloff is actually a licensed security guard, let alone licensed for concealed carry.

A tweet posted by Ryan Luby, Public Information Officer for the Denver City Attorney’s Office, reads, For those asking about the #denvershooting, here is what I can share at this time from the City Attorney’s Office: The Denver City Attorney’s Office will weigh any additional criminal charges related to the defendant possibly operating as an unlicensed security guard. Once the Denver Police Department completes its homicide investigation. The CAO is also working with the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses to weigh disciplinary action against the security guard company for hiring and deploying an unlicensed guard, one without a license much less an armed endorsement.

Lee Keltner had participated in other rallies recently and was known throughout the biker community. In 2016 he was charged for Disorderly Conduct/Fighting in Public. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to violating a protection order.

Interviewed after his death, Keltner’s sister Suzan said “He was my brother, my only sibling. He also served our country.”

“There’s going to be a lawsuit.”