Friends and family say Chris Gulzow was a lonely, troubled man who endlessly shared his dark observations and videos in social media posts, but rarely made real-life connections with others. Calling himself Christöf Gülzowprüzenstein, he often went into public wearing elaborate demon, vampire and ghoul costumes. It was just role playing.

Early Tuesday, Gulzow was once again on his scooter in downtown Denver wearing demonic, white-faced makeup, gloves with knife blades attached to the fingers and spiked leather wristbands.

At 12:49 a.m., his harmless escape life allegedly veered into a life-and-death struggle with a homeless man. Police say the 36-year-old Gulzow then fatally slashed and stabbed Brian Lucero, 29, in the parking lot of Torchy’s Tacos. Gulzow told police the man threatened him and yelled at him “to get out of my alley.” He claimed the victim attacked him and stole his scooter, but witnesses said Gulzow was the aggressor.

“He seemed OK. Nice, but maybe a little bit fanatical,” Gulzow’s friend Annie Mills, 35, said Wednesday. “On Tuesday, after I read what happened, I absolutely had chills. It was so creepy and crazy. Super scary.”

His father, Jack Gulzow, 65, speculates that the July 2009 death of his younger son, Jack Gulzow Jr., in a kayaking accident at Coldbrook Reservoir near Hot Springs, S.D., may have affected the mental health of his other son. Chris Gulzow was taking anger-management classes and may have been off his medications on Tuesday morning, his father said Wednesday.

Chris Gulzow, who works at a pizza restaurant, has a son and lives with his mother. He’s the vocalist of a heavy metal band. Disputing police accounts, Jack Gulzow said his son never dressed as a clown. He dressed in demonic costumes, wearing red and blue hair, body piercings and spiked boots, bracelets and necklaces, he said.

“Maybe he went in that direction because of his brother,” Jack Gulzow said of his son. “He is a very troubled young man. A dark side of him was coming out. He liked the attention he got. But I didn’t think he had that (violence) in him. He’s not a person to go out and attack people.”

Mills met Gulzow in 2014 outside a concert at the Hi-Dive nightclub at 7 N. Broadway. She approached him and said she liked his rings. Every finger on both hands had skull rings on them. Gulzow was selling the rings but gave one to Mills. He animatedly asked her for her Facebook page so they could become friends. After he did so, Mills became captivated with Gulzow’s “dark” postings. It fed her morbid curiosity.

Gulzow’s Facebook page was less a place that he visited than one in which he appeared to inhabit, according to Mills. Gulzow made as many as 30 posts a day.

“It felt nice to give an autistic homeless youngster a Free ticket to my Friends show at Psyclon9 to just see a smile is greatness,” Gulzow wrote on March 26.

Psyclon Nine is an industrial/aggrotech band formed in California by lead vocalist Nero Bellum.

On March 23, Gulzow posted a melted-and-scar-faced, ghoulish picture of Bellum on Facebook, and quoted him as saying, “I Can See Kazillions of eyes looking at Me with looks of Begs For Mercy as I look Down The faces of Wonder What Will Happen?, How Painfull (sic) will this Be,! How Long Will this last?”

The fakes will be “exposed and disposed of: Behold I am The True Saten (sic),” Gulzow wrote in a March 21 post. Gulzow posted Nazi propaganda posters and pictures of himself in elaborate costumes including of him as Batman’s Joker. He offered dark witticisms like one on Jan. 30: “I like sudden death moments when you almost just died and made it out alive.” On the topic of shocking himself with a Taser he wrote: “If i had one I might kill myself with it (be)cause it’s a rush.”

Gulzow claims to be the owner, founder, producer and promoter of @ΨWorldMusicStudiosΨ and the goth-metal band, The Paranormals, which in October released the album, “The Dark Saints Kings,” with original songs including “Rulers of Darkness,” “Sinful Flesh,” and “Tortered (sic) Souls.”

In other ways, Gulzow’s Facebook could be rather mundane as well. He boasted about his son and wrote about his dream of buying a food truck and calling it “Brats and Tots.” In a March 25 post, Gulzow complained about his roommate’s habit of “blaring the TV,” and added “it’s not like I’m all hardcore everyday.”

When she learned of Gulzow’s arrest and read about his prior arrests, Mills said it made her think his obsession with dark themes wasn’t the result of him getting involved in satanic worship but a reflection of what he already was.

“I think ultimately he was sad and lonely. Looking back at his posts now, he seemed to be looking for a sense of belonging,” Mills said. “It seems any times he felt slighted by someone or that his ego was bruised, he became angry.”

Gulzow’s arrests date back to 2000. He has multiple domestic violence, assault and weapons convictions. In 2012, he was convicted of felony menacing with a deadly weapon, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation records.

On Feb. 20, 2012, Gulzow was arguing with his aunt, Lisa Reyes, 46, in a Lakewood parking lot when he “pulled a gun out of his coat so I could see it.” She was “really scared” and got into her car … “to get away from him.” She started her car and “I looked at him, and he was pointing the gun right at my face.” She immediately drove away “cause I thought he was going to shoot me!”

Gulzow, who had been moving out of his apartment that night, ran across the street with his 11-year-old son and they hid in the bathroom of the Western Convenience Store. The boy told police his dad hid the gun, which was only a pellet gun, by a pool.

Gulzow is being held without bond at Denver’s downtown jail pending formal charges.