Denver DA: TV security guard will be charged with murder

DENVER – A television station security guard accused of fatally shooting a pro-police demonstrator following opposing rallies will be charged with second-degree murder, Denver’s District Attorney Beth McCann said Thursday.

The charge will be filed against Matthew Dolloff, 30, on Monday — the deadline for prosecutors to bring charges — in the death of Lee Keltner, 49, McCann said in a statement. She did not elaborate on her decision to prosecute Dolloff, who was protecting a KUSA-TV producer at the time, for second-degree murder, rather than first-degree murder.

People convicted of second-degree murder face a mandatory sentence of between 16 and 48 years in prison.

Police say Keltner was in a verbal dispute with a 27-year-old man as the rallies broke up Saturday when Dolloff and a 25-year-old person got into an altercation with Keltner.

Keltner slapped Dolloff in the head and Dolloff pulled out a semiautomatic handgun and shot Keltner as Keltner discharged pepper spray at him, police said in an arrest affidavit.

According to video taken by KUSA’s producer, Keltner was upset that his dispute with the first man was being recorded by a camera.

No attorney was listed for Dolloff yet in court records.