CENTENNIAL, Colo. — The head of a firearms training group that disrupted Douglas County PrideFest is continuing to deny Able Shepherd’s participation, despite emails obtained by 9NEWS indicating otherwise.
The emails show the group organized an effort to demonstrate at PrideFest last month and asked people to oppose the event’s "perverse agenda.” That’s despite a statement from the company, posted to Facebook last week, that said the company was not involved.
“You said Able Shepherd was not involved. And yet you organized the gathering, the disruption. That's involved, by any definition,” Next anchor Kyle Clark said in an interview with Jimmy Graham, the group’s CEO, on Tuesday.
“I understand the twist that you're trying to do. I just disagree,” Graham said. “I understand your reach. I disagree.”
A group of approximately 70 men interrupted DougCo PrideFest’s family-friendly drag show on August 26. The men, wearing shirts reading “Stand to Protect Children,” stood blocking the view of the performers for roughly 40 minutes until they were escorted out. Graham acknowledges he was one of those men, saying he was there to protect children.
Able Shepherd’s Operations Manager Melissa Papulias has previously said that many of the protesters were other Able Shepherd employees and trainees who attended in a personal capacity, though the emails about the event were distributed by Able Shepherd’s email system, recruiting protesters to interrupt the PrideFest show.
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The email’s RSVP link led to a sign-up page for the protest under Papulias’ name.
"We're a small company, and I've got one email address. I don't know if we should have used a different email," Graham said. "We did not pay people to be there. Did we? Did we put it out on one of our email addresses? I believe that we did."
Graham also founded Able Shepherd, the company based in Centennial that organizes weapons training, security assessments and Bible studies on Christian end-times prophecies. He began the company, with the legal name Duty to Act, LLC, in 2012. He initially started the company for law enforcement and security guards after his time in the CIA.
Republican Douglas County commissioner George Teal, a supporter of Able Shepard, has said the company is a "well-regulated militia." Graham rejects that description, but does say he will "want" and "need" his armed trainees to back up deputies "if it gets real bad."
"It's just not possible for a police department, sheriff's department, fill in the blank, if things did get bad, like has happened in any civilization -- there's not enough people, the math doesn't work out," Graham said.
"I'd be doing it under the authority of the Constitution."
Douglas County's Republican Sheriff Darren Weekly was a guest on Graham's podcast last month.
"What I'm seeing right now, creeping in, is not sustainable. This stuff going on in our county, that's creeping in. I understand that you are there to enforce laws, but I see a thing coming for our children that I'm not OK with, right?" Graham said to Weekly on the podcast. "If it gets that bad, you're going to want, you're going to need people, and they should be people of character who have some level of training, standing in support... If it gets that bad, you're going to want, you're going to need people, and they should be people of character who have some level of training, standing in support."
Weekly replied, "Absolutely."
In a statement to 9News on Wednesday, the Douglas County sheriff distanced himself from Graham.
"Cooperation between citizens and law enforcement is valuable, but it must be within legal boundaries to ensure everyone's safety," Weekly wrote. "In the setting of the podcast you referenced, I dismissed the scenario as unrealistic. I should have been clearer in my answer."
At no point in the podcast conversation did Weekly push back on Graham's scenario of armed Able Shepherd volunteers joining forces with deputies as something is "coming" for children.
The Douglas County Sheriff's Office said it doesn't have any planned events with Able Shepherd.
Last week, the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office told Able Shepherd to stay away from a joint event following their protest at PrideFest.
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