The man who livestreamed the police response to the Boulder King Soopers mass shooting last year was found not guilty of obstructing police officers Wednesday.
A jury acquitted Dean Schiller, 44, of a misdemeanor count of obstructing police after he happened to be at the Table Mesa King Soopers store on March 22, 2021, when a gunman opened fire, killing 10 people at the store. Schiller livestreamed during the attack.
“It’s a huge weight lifted off me right now,” Schiller said after hearing the verdict Wednesday.
On the day of the shooting, Schiller, who regularly films police around Boulder, began livestreaming from outside the grocery store before officers arrived. He stayed at the scene for more than an hour, and ignored about 60 requests from law enforcement that he leave, prosecutors said.
Schiller frequently cursed and yelled at police officers as he refused to leave the immediate area, his livestream video shows. But he also warned passersby to stay away from the store and did at times back up when instructed to do so.
Jurors rejected the prosecution’s argument that Schiller obstructed police by refusing to leave.
“This is an important victory for free press,” said David Lane, one of Schiller’s attorneys.
Schiller echoed that sentiment. He said he’s largely cut back on filming police activity around Boulder since his arrest, and isn’t sure if he’ll return to livestreaming as frequently as he did before. But he said it’s important for citizens to be able to “be at the scene of a crime and not be charged with a crime.”
“The big arguing point was they were saying my mere presence was considered a distraction and a distraction was obstruction,” Schiller said. “So at what point after this, if I had been convicted, could an officer just look at someone and say, ‘Now I’m distracted and you’re under arrest.’ It just opens this door to a big wide berth.”
Schiller’s lead defense attorney, Tiffany Drahota, said she believes Schiller was prosecuted in part because of frustration in the Boulder community that the suspect in the shooting case has consistently been found incompetent to stand trial, but said jurors made the right decision.
“They carefully considered the evidence, they understood the First Amendment issues, they understood Dean’s right to be there and they upheld the law,” she said.
A spokeswoman for the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately return a request for comment.
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