KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas man who was falsely accused of being among the shooters who opened fire at a rally celebrating the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory last year has died, his attorney said.
Denton Loudermill Jr., of Olathe, was briefly handcuffed but was never charged in the chaos that followed the deadly shooting. He later filed lawsuits against three Republican Missouri state senators and a Tennessee congressman who shared social media posts that falsely implicated him.
Those cases were all dismissed, largely on jurisdictional issues.
Attorney LaRonna Lassiter Saunders confirmed Loudermill’s death in a statement Friday but gave no details on the circumstances. Loudermill was 49.
“More details will be provided in time, but for now, we ask that you honor the family’s need for privacy as they come together to grieve this tremendous loss,” she wrote.
The Feb. 14, 2024, shooting outside Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri, killed a well-known DJ and injured more than 20 others, many of them children.
Loudermill’s lawsuits said he froze when the gunfire erupted, standing in the middle of the chaos so long that police had put up crime scene tape by the time he finally started to walked away. As he tried to leave, officers stopped him and told him he was moving “too slow.” They handcuffed him and put him on a curb, where people began taking pictures and posting them on social media, the lawsuits said.
Loudermill ultimately was led away and told he was free to go. But soon posts began appearing on X that included a picture of Loudermill, a car wash employee who was born and raised in the U.S. The posts called him an “illegal alien” and a “shooter,” even though he had no involvement, the lawsuits said.
Three men were ultimately charged with murder, and several other people faced other charges stemming from the shootings, which authorities said stemmed from a dispute between two groups of people.
Lassiter Saunders said she would continue fighting to clear Loudermill’s name.
“While the family takes this time to mourn, we want to make it clear that this is not over. Mr. Loudermill should not have spent his final days burdened with stress and chasing down a lie that went viral due to the careless and heartless actions of a Congressman, Missouri senators, and social media influencers, who couldn’t be bothered to verify the truth before destroying a man’s life.
“If you thought we were determined before, you haven’t seen anything yet!” she concluded.
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