The gunman who killed five people and endangered the lives of more than 40 at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ+ nightclub appeared in federal court Tuesday to face federal hate crime and firearms charges.
Anderson Aldrich, 23, has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.
Colorado Department of Corrections spokeswoman Alondra Gonzalez said Aldrich was transferred to the Wyoming State Penitentiary last year due to safety concerns in the high-profile case.
The charges include multiple federal firearms violations, including five counts of murder and 46 counts of attempted murder in state court last June, when Mr. Aldrich was charged with five counts of murder and 46 counts of attempted murder at a club during the Nov. 19, 2022 attack. This was done after each of the Q's pleaded guilty to one count each.
Aldrich, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, also pleaded no contest to state hate crime charges under a plea agreement. The plea acknowledged that Aldrich could very well be convicted of these crimes without admitting guilt. The plea carried the same weight as a conviction.
The federal charges follow an FBI investigation into the shooting, which was confirmed after Aldrich was sentenced in state court. At the time, District Attorney Michael Allen said the threat of the death penalty in the federal system was “a big part of what motivated the defendant to plead guilty to the state charges.”
Aldrich declined to speak at the sentencing hearing in state court and would not say why he went out clubbing and came back wearing a bulletproof vest. Aldrich began firing an AR-15 style rifle as soon as they returned.
Prosecutors say Aldrich had been to the club at least six times before that night and that Aldrich's mother forced them to go.
Aldrich told The Associated Press in a series of phone calls from prison that at the time of the attack they were on “very large amounts of drugs” and were abusing steroids. In response to his question whether the attack was motivated by hate, Aldrich said that was “completely beside the point.”
The district attorney called those statements self-serving and characterized the claims as ringing hollow. He said Aldrich's claim to be non-binary was part of his attempt to avoid hate crime charges, and that there was no evidence Aldrich identified as non-binary before the shooting. Ta.
At a hearing in the state case in February, prosecutors said Aldrich controlled a website that posted target practice videos of “neo-Nazi white supremacists.” A police detective and his online gaming friends also testified that Aldrich expressed hatred toward police, LBGTQ+ people, and minorities, and used racist and homophobic slurs. One person said Aldrich sent an online message with a photo of a trained rifle at a gay pride parade.
The attack shattered the sense of safety at Club Q, which had served as a haven for the city's LGBTQ+ community. Authorities said a Navy officer who grabbed the barrel of the suspect's rifle stopped the shooting by burning his hand, and an Army veteran helped subdue and beat Aldrich until police arrived.
The 2022 attack comes more than a year after Aldrich was arrested for threatening his grandparents and vowing to become the “next mass murderer” while stockpiling weapons, bulletproof vests and bomb-making materials.
Those charges were ultimately dismissed after Aldrich's mother and grandparents refused to cooperate with prosecutors.
