DENVER (Reuters) – A man was fatally shot on Saturday during dueling protests by left-wing and right-wing groups in downtown Denver, and police arrested a suspect they said was working as a private security guard.
An NBC News affiliate, KUSA-TV, said on its website that the man taken arrested for the shooting was a security guard hired by the television station to provide protection to its crew.
“It has been the practice of (KUSA) for a number of months to hire private security to accompany staff at protests,” the station said.
The shooting took place in a courtyard at the Denver Art Museum during a so-called “Patriot Rally” that was met by counter-protests by groups who dubbed their rally a “BLM-Antifa Soup Drive.”
Denver Police Chief of Investigations Joe Montoya would not confirm if the suspect worked for the station. Neither the victim nor the suspected shooter has been identified by authorities.
Montoya said police kept the two groups separated, and there were no other arrests during the competing rallies.
A photographer for the Denver Post captured an image of a man spraying a chemical agent at another man with a drawn hand gun.
(Reporting by Keith Coffman in Denver; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Clarence Fernandez)
