COLORADO SPRINGS — The person accused of opening fire at a Colorado LGBTQ nightclub that killed five people and injured at least 17 others was formally charged Tuesday with 305 felonies, including 10 counts of murder premeditated, 86 of attempted murder and 48 of bias-motivated crimes.
Police say the suspect, Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, walked through the front door of Club Q in Colorado Springs around midnight on Nov. 19, wearing body armor and carrying an assault rifle, and immediately started shooting. The attacker was tackled and beaten into submission by two unarmed clubbers and held until police arrived.
Tuesday’s hearing was the first time the defendant had appeared in court since the shooting. The defendant wore bright yellow prison clothes, was erect and attentive, and appeared to have healed considerably since an appearance in video court in the days immediately following the shooting. At the time, the suspect appeared to be slumped, his eyes swollen shut, his face bruised, and he was having trouble just talking.
The defendant is being held without bail at the El Paso County Jail. After charges were filed on Tuesday, the judge overseeing the case, Michael McHenry, has scheduled a preliminary hearing in the case for February. At the request of prosecutors, the judge agreed to unseal the affidavit Wednesday.
A clear motive for the shooting has not emerged publicly. But the inclusion of allegations of bias-motivated crimes, commonly known as hate crimes, by prosecutors suggests they believe the attack was specifically motivated by antipathy toward the LGBTQ community.
Speaking to reporters after the hearing, District Attorney Michael Allen declined to discuss details of the investigation, but said his office was confident it had evidence to prove the bias-motivated charges.
“We will not tolerate actions against members of the community based on their sexual identity,” Mr Allen said. “Members of that community have been harassed, intimidated and abused for too long.”
Defense attorneys say the defendant identifies as non-binary and uses the pronouns “they” and “she.” When asked by reporters whether the defendant’s gender identity played a role in the bias-motivated crime charges, Mr Allen said it was “part of the picture”.
Prosecutors chose to charge two counts of murder for each of the five people killed at the club, saying the defendant had acted with intent and intent as well as with extreme indifference to human life.
Colorado abolished the death penalty in 2020, so the maximum possible sentence in the case is life without the possibility of parole.
Mr. Allen said more charges had been filed in the case than in almost any other case in the state’s history. The number of charges could change, he said, as detectives try to track down all the people who were at the club that night.
The suspect was arrested in 2021 for voicing a bomb threat during an hours-long standoff with the police. According to The Gazette, a Colorado Springs newspaper, an affidavit filed in connection with that arrest quoted the defendant as saying they wanted to be “the next mass shooter.” Details of that arrest were sealed by a judge and it remains unclear how the case was resolved. The prosecutor said state law prohibited him from commenting on that case.