A man who was falsely accused of firing gunshots at the Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade in February 2024 has died, his attorney said in a statement released Friday on social media.
The Associated Press confirmed Denton Loudermill Jr.’s passing.
No cause of death was provided. He was 49.
“More details will be provided in time,” attorney LaRonna Lassiter Saunders said, “but for now, we ask that you honor the family’s need for privacy as they come together to grieve this tremendous loss.”
Loudermill of Olathe, Kan., was briefly handcuffed during the chaos on Feb. 14, 2024, but never charged in relation to the shooting that left one dead and more than 20 others injured.
Loudermill subsequently filed lawsuits against three Missouri state senators and a Tennessee congressman who shared social media posts incorrectly implicating him in the shooting outside of Union Station in Kansas City.
The suits were dismissed by the courts.
Three men were charged with murder after the shooting, which authorities said stemmed from a dispute between two groups of people.
Others faced lesser charges.
Lassiter Saunders said she will continue the fight to clear Loudermill’s name posthumously.
Loudermill, a United States citizen since birth, worked at a local car wash.
“While the family takes this time to mourn, we want to make it clear that this is not over,” Lassiter Sanders said. “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.”
Loudermill’s lawsuits claimed that he froze in the middle of the post-shooting chaos and was handcuffed for moving “too slow” as police cleared the scene.
As he sat handcuffed on the curb, people began taking photos and posting them to social media, where he was described as an “illegal alien” and a “shooter.”
“If you thought we were determined before,” Lassiter Saunders said, “you haven’t seen anything yet!”