DENVER (AP) 鈥� A man who fatally shot five people before being killed by police alluded to violence in a film for sale on a website that previously sold fictional e-books he's believed to have written, with victims and scenes similar to the attacks.
Lyndon McCleod, 47, wounded two others including a police officer in the rampage Dec. 27 at several locations around Denver.
The 47-minute film, 鈥淲arhorse,鈥� shows McCleod in a hotel room with a briefcase full of $100 bills, riding a custom motorcycle around Denver, standing in an art museum and sitting in a van outside World Tattoo Studio, where McLeod once owned a business called Flat Black Ink Corp.
The film intersperses action sequences, often edited as animation, with snippets of still photos, animal skulls, marked-up texts, forest fires, artwork, totems and Civil War references. Throughout, an audio-distorted, male voice-over reads texts about subjects including Genghis Khan and Jesse James, .
One brief scene shows a figure in a black, hockey-type mask carrying a long gun and stepping out of a van. The film, which at one point shows McCleod removing the mask, solely credits McCleod at the end and he's the only person featured in it.
The movie鈥檚 sale doesn鈥檛 sit well with Jeremy Costilow, whose name was mentioned 100 times in McLeod鈥檚 self-published book trilogy. Costilow was nearly killed in the rampage.
鈥淣obody should make money off of that. It鈥檚 terrible,鈥� Costilow told the Gazette. 鈥淚 know people are fascinated by killers, but I don鈥檛 think anybody should own that movie at all.鈥�
Amanda Knight, a friend of McLeod鈥檚 who warned police about him a year before the slayings, is helping sell the movie to help McLeod's former girlfriend recoup money and property she lost. A statement on the website says, 鈥淧roceeds of this film go to victims of the crime.鈥�
McLeod鈥檚 friends are also traumatized from the killings, Knight said.
鈥淧eople have to heal. People have to survive. We鈥檙e not rich,鈥� said Knight.
Jimmy Maldonado, who was injured in the killer鈥檚 first stop at a tattoo shop, was shown a screenshot from the film showing McLeod in tactical gear.
鈥淗e was wearing that same helmet as what鈥檚 in the movie,鈥� Maldonado said. 鈥淎t first I thought it was the police who shot me.鈥�
McLeod was wearing all black, Maldonado said, when he walked in the door of a tattoo shop and killed Maldonado's wife, Alyssa Gunn-Maldonado, 35, and her friend, Alicia Cardenas, 44, who owned the shop. McLeod in the next hour went on to kill Michael Swinyard, 67; Danny Scofield, 38; and finally hotel clerk Sarah Steck, 28.
Three killed were at tattoo shops and police have said McLeod knew most of the victims through business or personal relationships.
The self-published, fictional books written under the pen name Roman McClay named some of McLeod's real-life victims and described similar attacks. The books were no longer available for download Sunday but the film could be downloaded for $30.
In the first book, a character named Lyndon shoots everyone at a poker party held by a character named 鈥淢ichael Swinyard." The second novel also features a character named Lyndon and names 鈥淎licia Cardenas鈥� as a victim.
Investigators know about the movie and will be reviewing it, Denver and Lakewood police said.
The FBI can't comment on an ongoing investigation but continues to work with Denver and Lakewood police to determine the motive for the shooting, FBI spokeswoman Dana M. Plumhoff said by email Sunday.
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This story has been corrected to show that three were killed at tattoo shops, not four.
The Associated Press
