Guilty Plea Expected from Suspect in Colorado Springs Nightclub Shooting

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Anderson Lee Aldrich, the nonbinary suspect linked to the Colorado Springs gay nightclub shooting, is slated to enter a guilty plea Monday. The brutal attack last year resulted in the death of five individuals and injury to 17 others at the LGBTQ+ safe haven in this predominantly conservative city.

Should Aldrich plead guilty, it would mean a probable life sentence, thereby terminating the legal proceedings just seven months post the incident. This might provide some solace to the victims’ families and survivors by averting a potentially distressing trial.

In Monday’s hearing, relatives of the victims and the survivors will share their heart-wrenching experiences, detailing how the horrifying event forever scarred their lives. The suspect had stormed into Club Q shortly before midnight on Nov. 19, unleashing a spray of bullets from an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle.

Aldrich had been apprehended over a year prior for issuing threats against their grandparents, expressing a desire to become “the next mass killer.” However, the case was ultimately dismissed.

Aldrich conveyed their remorse and intention to face the legal consequences during a series of prison phone calls to The Big Big News. Several survivors informed the AP about the prospective plea deal upon learning about Aldrich’s comments. They mentioned that prosecutors had advised them of Aldrich’s intent to plead guilty, which would guarantee a life sentence.

While federal and state authorities and defense attorneys have refrained from discussing the potential plea agreement, Colorado law necessitates that victims be informed about such progress.

Aldrich, who faces over 300 state charges including murder and hate crimes, may also face federal hate crime charges. The U.S. Justice Department is considering this, according to an anonymous senior law enforcement official familiar with the situation.

Aldrich had indicated violent intentions a year prior to the Club Q attack. Their grandparents had informed authorities about Aldrich’s plans to amass weapons, body armor, and homemade bombs to become “the next mass killer.” Following a confrontation with SWAT officers that was broadcasted live on Facebook and led to the evacuation of 10 neighboring houses, Aldrich was arrested but later surrendered.

However, the charges against Aldrich were dismissed in July 2022 when Aldrich’s mother and grandparents, the case’s victims, refused to cooperate with prosecutors, sidestepping subpoena delivery attempts, according to unsealed court documents post the shooting. Other relatives expressed their fear of Aldrich hurting their grandparents if released, painting a picture of an isolated and violent person without a job who spent a large chunk of a $30,000 windfall on 3D printers for making guns.

Despite the seizure of two guns—a ghost gun pistol and an MM15 rifle—during the 2021 arrest, Aldrich was able to legally purchase more firearms, sparking questions about the necessity for a red flag order to prevent such purchases. The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office cited the absence of new evidence indicating Aldrich as a future threat, given that the 2021 arrest record was sealed after the charges were dropped.

Investigators discovered that the rifle and a handgun used during the Club Q assault seemed to be ghost guns, untraceable firearms that can be homemade and acquired without a background check.

In a jailhouse interview with AP, Aldrich admitted to abusing a “very large plethora of drugs” and steroids at the time of the attack, but remained non-committal about the hate crimes charges. Aldrich’s attorneys, while not contesting Aldrich’s involvement in the shooting, contested hate as the motive.

Some survivors perceive Aldrich’s remarks as an attempt to evade the federal death penalty. Colorado abolished the death penalty in 2020 and now mandates life without parole for first-degree murder. They criticized Aldrich’s reluctance to discuss the motive and their vague language such as “I just can’t believe what happened” and “I wish I could turn back time.”

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