Source: Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images / Getty
The prime suspect in the deadly mass shooting that took place in and around Denver, Colorado has been identified by law enforcement, confirming to observers that he was a rabid white supremacist with a visible social media presence.
According to reports, law enforcement officials in Denver, Colorado identified Lyndon McLeod as the prime suspect responsible for the shooting spree that left five dead in the city and the suburban neighborhood of Lakewood on Monday (December 27th) after not offering information on him for 24 hours. McLeod was subsequently killed in a shootout with officers in Lakewood that same afternoon. Paul Pazen, chief of the Denver Police Department in a press conference confirmed that McLeod was “on the radar of law enforcement.” Two prior investigations into the 47-year old – one in 2020 and one earlier this year – resulted in no state or federal criminal charges. Further reporting suggests that he might’ve been dressed as a police officer during the shootings, with had led officials to also suggest that McLeod knew some of his victims and referred to them as targeted attacks being that two of the crime scenes were tattoo parlors and one was a former parlor he owned. No motive was fully confirmed in the press conference.
However, many point to McLeod’s social media presence as proof that he was not only a white supremacist but that he was a firm advocate of racist violence and violence towards women. The Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists group pointed out that McLeod espoused these views under the pseudonym of Roman McClay online via their Twitter account on Tuesday (December 28th), stating: “The Denver mass shooter was a white supremacist and a misogynist obsessed with masculinity, oppressing women, defending the white race, and shooting communists.” Alt-right pundit Mike Cernovich was among McLeod’s followers on Twitter.
CW: Shooting, Denver shooting, Lyndon Mcleod
The Denver mass shooter was a white supremacist and a misogynist obsessed with masculinity, oppressing women, defending the white race, and shooting communists. pic.twitter.com/ow5ZgiGxW2
— Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists (@COSAntiFascists) December 29, 2021
Independent journalist Nick Martin found more information confirming McLeod as a white supremacist, and shared those details in a thread on Twitter which revealed that McLeod also wrote a book that is rife with neo-Nazi imagery. Martin also writes in the thread that the book “includes racist and other bigoted fantasies about killing lots of people” as well as “fantasies of killing people involved in the BLM movement”.
1. THREAD: The gunman who killed five people in a shooting spree in the Denver area on Monday "harbored extremist views," according to this report from ABC News.
Here's a thread with some of what I've pieced together so far. https://t.co/wtYw3e24bF
— Nick Martin (@nickmartin) December 29, 2021
The news confirms once again that white domestic terrorism is still thriving in America with no signs of slowing down.