Club Q shooter pleads guilty to murder
Anderson Lee Aldrich, the suspect in the Club Q shooting, appeared in a Colorado courtroom Monday and pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder charges and said he would not contest felony and misdemeanor bias crimes.
Anderson Lee Aldrich is serving a life sentence for shooting and killing five people and wounding 19 others at an LGBTQ+ club in Colorado Springs. 2022pleaded guilty Tuesday to additional hate crime and firearm charges following new evidence of anti-gay slurs and weapons purchases.
He refused to apologize or address the victim’s family in court, according to the Associated Press.
Aldrich, who identifies as non-binary and prefers to be referred to with the pronouns “they/them,” pleaded guilty to 50 federal hate crime counts and a firearms-related charge to avoid the death penalty in an agreement between his lawyers and prosecutors.
Instead, prosecutors are recommending that Aldrich be sentenced to 190 years in prison on the firearms charges, plus life in prison for each hate crime, the outlet reported.
Colorado Springs Club Q ‘non-binary’ shooter ran neo-Nazi site, used homophobic slurs online, police say
In this image taken from video provided by the Colorado Department of Justice, Anderson Lee Aldrich (left), the suspect in the 2022 mass shooting that left five people dead at Club Q in Colorado Springs, appears in court on June 23, 2023. (Colorado Judicial Branch via The Associated Press)
As part of the deal, Aldrich admitted to the hatred evidence on Tuesday.
“It’s important for the government to acknowledge that these were hate crimes and it’s important for the Club Q community to acknowledge that these were hate crimes,” prosecutor Alison Connaught told The Associated Press.
Club Q “was a special gathering place for people who needed a community and a safe place,” Connaughty said Tuesday, adding that prosecutors “met people who said, ‘This place saved my life and made me feel normal again.'”
U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney, Colorado’s first openly gay federal judge, will now decide whether to accept the sentencing agreement.
Aldrich did not speak, but his lawyer, David Kraut, said there was no single reason Anderson carried out the shootings. Childhood trauma, a sometimes abusive mother, online extremism, drug use and easy access to guns were all “factors that put Anderson at increased risk of engaging in extreme violence,” Kraut said Tuesday.
Aldrich, 24, pleaded guilty last year in a Colorado court to five counts of first-degree murder, 46 counts of second-degree murder and a hate crime charge in the November 2022 shooting at Club Q, Fox News Digital previously reported.
Federal prosecutors now allege Aldrich’s attack on the LGBTQ+ club was premeditated and fueled by bias.
In recent court documents reviewed by The Associated Press, prosecutors say Aldrich orchestrated a spam-email campaign against a former boss who is gay. They also accuse Aldrich of spreading a racist and anti-Semitic proclamation by another person who claimed transgender people were mentally ill.
Prosecutors said Aldrich had targeted targets holding rainbow rings riddled with bullets and shared recordings of 911 calls from the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting that killed 49 people.
Prosecutors allege new evidence shows Aldrich spent more than $9,000 on weapons and accessories from at least 56 vendors between September 2020 and the 2022 attacks.
Colorado Club Q shooter pleads guilty to federal hate crimes, firearms charges to avoid death penalty
A message of remembrance for the victims of the gay nightclub shooting is painted on the side of a commercial building in downtown Colorado Springs on Nov. 23, 2022. (AP Photo/David Zarbowski)
In Aldrich’s apartment, investigators found a hand-drawn map with the entrances and exits for the LGBTQ+ club and a black binder of training materials titled “How to Deal with an Active Activist,” according to prosecutors.
Lawyers for Aldrich, who was referred to as “Mister Aldrich” during the state court hearing, have argued his client was under the influence of cocaine and other drugs at the time of the attack.
Some of the shooting victims and the district attorney who prosecuted Aldrich in state court have denied the allegation that Aldrich is non-binary, saying it was an attempt to avoid hate crime charges, according to the Associated Press.
Ashtyn Gamblin, who worked at the club’s front door and was shot nine times and is still undergoing physical therapy, told the outlet that true members of the LGBTQ+ community would not attack members in a safe space.
“The only safe place you come to is you’re not part of the community, you just want the community to go away,” said Gamblin, one of several victims expected to give impact statements before Aldrich’s sentencing.
Colorado Club Q shooting suspect charged with 305 crimes including murder, bias crimes and assault
Police have seized a photo of Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, the suspect in the mass shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs that left five people dead. (Colorado Springs Police Department)
Aldrich identifies as non-binary, but if you’re a member of a protected group, such as a member of the LGBTQ community, you could be charged with a hate crime that targets your allies. Hate crime laws focus on victims, not perpetrators.
Prosecutors said Aldrich visited the club at least eight times before the attack and stayed there for about an hour and a half before opening fire on patrons again.
Just before midnight on November 19, 2022, Aldrich returned wearing a tactical vest with bulletproof plates and brandishing an AR-15 rifle. The suspect killed the first person at the club’s entrance, then opened fire on the bartender and bar patrons before heading to the dance floor, pausing to reload the rifle’s magazine.
Fox News Digital previously reported that a Navy officer burned his hand while grabbing Aldrich’s weapon, and an Army veteran subdued the shooter until police arrived.
Colorado gay nightclub attack gunman expected to accept plea deal
LGBTQ venue Club Q, the site of a mass shooting in 2022 that left five people dead, is photographed on Wednesday, June 7, 2023, in Colorado Springs. (AP Photo/Chet Strange)
When his grandparents confronted him about stockpiling weapons and bomb-making materials, Aldrich drank vodka and made threatening rants, vowing to be “the next mass murderer.” But after his arrest, Aldrich’s family did not cooperate, and prosecutors failed to serve them subpoenas, so the charges were eventually dropped.
A felony conviction in that case would have prevented Aldrich from legally purchasing firearms, but District Attorney Michael Allen said most of the weapons used in the nightclub attack were made from untraceable ghost gun parts, which don’t require a background check to obtain.
Two guns seized from the scene of the 2021 crime had not been returned to Aldrich at the time of the Club Q shooting, the Associated Press reported.
This image provided by the state attorney’s office shows surveillance camera footage of Club Q shooting suspect Anderson Lee Aldrich firing his weapon at the Colorado Springs venue on Nov. 19, 2022. (4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office via The Associated Press)
Aldrich will be returned to state prison after his hearing and will begin serving his federal sentence under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which was expanded in 2009 to include crimes motivated by gender identity, sexual orientation and disability.
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Gamblin told The Associated Press she wants Aldrich to receive the death penalty because many of her victims’ lives have been irrevocably changed. Some of her friends don’t want to go to events and some are struggling to hold jobs that involve working with the public, she said.
“We just want things to go back to normal, but we know that’s not going to happen,” she told The Associated Press.
