DENVER — The man who killed five people and wounded two others last December in Denver and Lakewood produced a 47-minute film beforehand that foreshadowed parts of the rampage, 9Wants to Know has confirmed.
It’s not clear when the film was made. A trailer for it was posted on a Twitter page on Christmas Eve – three days before the shootings that began at a tattoo shop in Denver and ended when a Lakewood police officer killed the gunman, Lyndon McLeod.
The film captures scenes of McLeod sitting outside a tattoo shop in an area where he fired several shots and lit a car on fire, features clips of weapons and a van like the one he drove that night, and contains clips of him dressed in a jacket with “POLICE” written on the front – as he was described by witnesses in one of the killings.
The video was originally obtained by the Denver Gazette.
Despite repeated attempts, 9NEWS was unable to reach the film’s producer.
The film, which includes scratchy narration throughout and numerous violent images, includes multiple scenes filmed in Denver, including shots of McLeod leaving a hotel in the RiNo neighborhood and riding a motorcycle alongside the A-Line train.
The theme of it is similar to three dystopian novels he wrote in 2019 and 2020. They include misogynistic and violence-laden fantasy – and the third one resembles the details of the Dec. 27 attack.
Writing under the pen name Roman McClay, McLeod titled the trilogy “Sanction.” In “Sanction Book 2,” the main character, named Lyndon, bursts into a tattoo shop on Sixth Avenue heavily armed and wearing body armor.
The books also name two of his real-life victims, and two of the shootings occurred at tattoo shops.
The incident stretched over about 45 minutes and involved multiple crime scenes in two cities:
- McLeod killed Alicia Cardenas, 44, and Alyssa Gunn-Maldonado, 35, and wounded Jimmy Maldonado, 44, at Sol Tribe Tattoo, 56 Broadway. Cardenas owned the business.
- McLeod fired into a building that contained a home and business and lit a van on fire in the 200 block of West Sixth Ave. No one was injured there.
- McLeod killed Michael Swinyard, 67, in his apartment at 1201 Williams St.
- McLeod killed Danny Scofield, 38, at Lucky Thirteen Tattoo and Piercing, 1550 Kipling St.
- McLeod killed Sarah Steck, 28, at Hyatt House, 7310 W. Alaska Dr. She was a front-desk receptionist at the hotel.
- McLeod shot and wounded Lakewood police officer Ashley Ferris at the intersection of South Vance Street and West Alaska Drive – and she returned fire, killing him.
Denver and Lakewood police confirmed late Friday that they were aware of the video but had not yet obtained a copy of it.
Contact 9Wants to Know investigator Kevin Vaughan with tips about this or any story: kevin.vaughan@9news.com or 303-871-1862.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Investigations from 9Wants to Know