DENVER (Scripps News Denver) — A man charged with obstructing police after he livestreamed the 2021 mass shooting at the Table Mesa King Soopers was found not guilty.
Police vehicles sit in the parking lot outside a King Soopers grocery store where a mass shooting took place Tuesday, March 23, 2021, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Dean Schiller, 44, was acquitted of obstruction of a police officer by a Boulder County jury Wednesday after a two-day trial.
Prosecutors said Schiller was distracting police officers when he had his phone out and was recording the scene.
In court, prosecutors played the livestream video taken by Schiller and in it, you can hear police officers repeatedly telling him to back away or leave the scene.
The defense argued that Schiller’s actions were protected by the First Amendment and he was listening to police officers and backing away from them when they ordered him to do so.
They said he was not preventing officers from doing their job and said even though Schiller’s actions may have been abrasive they did not rise to a criminal level.
This story was originally published Oct. 19 by KMGH in Denver, an E.W. Scripps Company.
