Colorado Springs mass shooter pleads guilty to five counts of murder

The suspect charged with killing five people in a mass shooting at a Colorado Springs gay nightclub pleaded guilty in court Monday.

Anderson Lee Aldrich, 23, who is non-binary and uses the pronouns she and she, wore a blue plaid shirt and blue tie, responded calmly to the judge as they pleaded guilty to five counts of first-degree murder, 46 counts of attempted murder premeditated murder and two bias motivated crimes.

A guilty plea means that the victims’ families will not be subjected to a months-long process that forces them to relive the day of the shooting.

Relatives and survivors of victims are expected to speak at Monday’s hearing about how their lives have been forever changed by the terror that erupted just before midnight when the suspect walked into Club Q and indiscriminately wielded an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle. fired.

Aldrich was arrested more than a year before the attack for threatening their grandparents and vowing to become “the next mass murderer.” But the charges in that case were eventually dropped.

Anderson Lee Aldrich, the non-binary 22-year-old accused of shooting five people to death at Club Q, an LGBTQ club in Colorado Springs on Nov. 19, 2022. He is pictured in his mugshot after his November arrest

Noah Reich, left, and David Maldonado, the co-founders of Los Angeles-based Classroom of Compassion, erected a memorial near Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Nov. 22, 2022, featuring photos of the five victims of a miss shooting in the gay nightclub

Monday’s hearing follows a series of prison phone calls from Aldrich to The Associated Press, expressing his regret and intent to face the consequences at this hearing.

Several survivors told the AP about a planned plea deal after being contacted about Aldrich’s comments. They said prosecutors had informed them that Aldrich would plead guilty to charges that would carry a life sentence.

Federal and state authorities and attorneys have declined to comment on a possible plea deal for Aldrich, but Colorado law requires victims to be notified of such developments.

Aldrich faces more than 300 counts, including murder and hate crimes. The U.S. Justice Department is considering pursuing federal charges of hate crimes, according to a senior law enforcement official familiar with the case who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing case.

Aldrich hinted at plans to carry out violent attacks at least a year before the attack on Club Q. In June 2021, Aldrich’s grandparents told authorities they had been warned not to get in the way of a plan to transfer guns, ammunition stocking up on body armor and a homemade bomb to become “the next mass murderer.”

Before Aldrich carried out the fatal shooting, the suspect had threatened to kill their grandparents in 2021 for standing in the way of a plan to become ‘the next mass murderer’

Aldrich is pictured last year at the house where their mother rented a room after he threatened to blow up their grandparents’ basement

Aldrich was subsequently arrested following a standoff with SWAT agents live-streamed on Facebook and the evacuation of 10 nearby homes, telling officers, “If they break through, I’ll blow it to holy hell!” Aldrich eventually surrendered.

However, charges against Aldrich were dropped in July 2022 after Aldrich’s mother and grandparents, the victims in the case, refused to cooperate with prosecutors and attempts to evade them with subpoenas to testify, according to court documents obtained after the shooting. unsealed. .

Other family members told a judge they feared Aldrich would hurt their grandparents if they were released. showed.

Aldrich was then released from prison and authorities seized two weapons – a ghost gun pistol and an MM15 rifle – at the time of the arrest. But there was nothing to stop Aldrich from legally buying more firearms, which immediately after the shooting raised questions about whether authorities should have applied for a red flag order to prevent such purchases.

Club Q victim Kelly Loving, 40, a trans woman was one of five killed in the shooting

Derrick Rump, 38, was “active in the local LGBTQ community” and loved by friends and family

Raymond Green Vance, 22, was tragically killed in the club massacre

Daniel Aston, 28, was one of the innocent victims killed by the lone gunman

Ashley Paugh, 35, a married mother was one of five victims

The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office said it could not have sought a court order to stop Aldrich from buying or possessing guns because the 2021 arrest file was sealed after charges were dropped. There was no new evidence they could use to prove Aldrich posed a threat “for the foreseeable future,” the sheriff’s office said.

Investigators later revealed that the two weapons Aldrich had during the Club Q attack – the rifle and a handgun – appeared to be phantom weapons, or unserialized firearms that are homemade and do not require an owner to pass a background check.

Aldrich told the AP in one of the prison interviews that they were using a “very high abundance of drugs” and abusing steroids at the time of the attack. But they did not answer directly to the hate crime allegations.

Candles, flowers, cards are outside Club Q in memory of the five victims who died

Investigators at the scene of the Club Q nightclub, where Aldrich arrived with an AR-15 rifle

When asked if the attack was motivated by hate, Aldrich said only that that was “not true at all.” Aldrich’s lawyers, who have not disputed Aldrich’s role in the shooting, have also rejected hatred as the reason.

Some survivors who listened to the recorded phone calls saw Aldrich’s comments as an attempt to avoid the death penalty that still exists in the federal system.

Colorado abolished it in 2020 and life without jail time is now the penalty imposed for first-degree murder in the state.

They objected to Aldrich’s reluctance to discuss motive and their use of passive, generic language such as “I just can’t believe what happened” and “I wish I could turn back time.”