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Denver-Area Mass Shooter Reportedly Wrote Books That Mirrored Rampage
Lyndon McLeod, who killed multiple people in the Denver area before being shot dead by police, had written a series of books in which a character bearing his name murders numerous people.
A Colorado man who killed five people during a shooting spree that spanned the Denver area before he was shot dead by police, reportedly wrote self-published books that mirrored the rampage.
Lyndon McLeod, 47, began the spree by killing Alyssa Gunn-Maldonado, 35, and Alicia Cardenas, 44, a little before 6 p.m. on Monday night at Sol Tribe Tattoo and Piercing in Denver, according to local outlet CBS4. Jimmy Maldonado, Cardenas’ husband, was also shot but survived and was transported an area hospital where he was placed in intensive care, KDVR reports. Cardenas was an owner of the parlor.
McLeod then broke into a home in nearby Lakewood where he chased a couple and set their van on fire, according to the Lakewood Police. From there, he shot and killed Michael Swinyard, 67, inside his residence. McLeod then got into a shootout with Denver police before making it to Lucky 13 Tattoo in Lakewood where he shot and killed tattoo artist Danny “Dano” Scofield, 38. McLeod drove to the Hyatt House hotel in Lakewood where he shot Sarah Steck, 28, while she was working at the front desk.
Near the hotel, McLeod exchanged gunfire with Lakewood Police agents (that department calls the agents and not officers) when he shot one officer in the abdomen. The agent, who survived, fired back and killed McLeod.
The shooter knew four of the five victims, some through personal relationships and others through business relations, according to local outlet CBS4. He did not know Steck but reportedly had issues with the hotel.
McLeod, a former tattoo shop owner, had apparently written a series of books that alluded to such a massacre. The series of three books, called “Sanction,” featured a character named Lyndon McLeod who shoots up a tattoo shop, local outlet 9News reports. That shooting occurs in the second of the three books in a tattoo shop on Sixth Avenue specifically. The van fire occurred on Sixth Avenue. At one point in “Sanction Book 2,” Lyndon meets Unabomber Theodore "Ted" Kaczynski. Throughout the series, his character kills more than 40 people. The books were also reportedly filled with sexism, conspiracy theories, and sexual assault fantasies.
During a press conference Tuesday, police confirmed that McLeod had been on their radar for a while. They investigated him in both 2020 and 2021, but no charges resulted from those investigations.
