Murderer Planned his Killings for Years

VICTIMS NAMED IN HIS NOVELS

Newsroom El Comercio de Colorado

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Police identified the perpetrator of a series of shootings in the Denver metropolitan area. Lyndon McLeod, 47, who died after confronting the police, was accused of opening fire on Monday, December 27, in various parts of Denver and Lakewood. Five people lost their lives and two more were injured in these events.

Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen indicated that the individual was “on the radar of law enforcement agencies” as he was the subject of two “prior investigations” in 2020 and earlier this year but had not been charged at the state or federal level. The first two victims, Alicia Cárdenas, 44, and Alyssa Gunn, 35, were murdered at the Sol Tribe Tattoo Shop on Broadway.

The medical examiner confirmed that McLeod’s third victim, Michael Swinyard, 67, was shot and killed on the 1200 block of North Williams Street near Cheesman Park in Denver. The last two victims were killed in Lakewood. Danny Scofield, 38, was killed at Lucky13 Tattoo on Colfax Avenue, and Sarah Steck, 28, a worker at Hyatt House in Bellmar, died the day after she was shot from serious injuries.

He Wrote about the Murder of his Victims

Matt Clark, a supervisor for the Denver Major Crimes Division, said McCleod knew at least three of his victims. McCleod, like Cárdenas, Swinyard, and Scofield were in the tattoo art industry and most likely had business and personal relationships. “There were previous relationships between them, whether personal or business, that factors into this investigation,” Clark said.

McCleod also had a passion for literature. He formed a publishing company that published the books “Sanction”, “Sanction II”, and “Sanction III”. All three books were written by McCleod under the pseudonym Roman McClay. In those books McCleod made direct reference to Cárdenas, Swinyard, and Scofield. The character in these books murdered his victims in the same way McCleod did.