Victims called the Colorado Springs mass shooter a “monster” who hunted down LGBTQ+ patrons in a calculated attack last year that killed five people
Anderson Lee Aldrich pleaded guilty to five counts of murder and 46 counts of attempted murder. Aldrich also pleaded no contest to two hate crimes, one a felony and the other a misdemeanor.
People in the courtroom wiped away tears as Judge Michael McHenry explained the charges and read out the names of the victims. Aldrich mostly looked down as the victims spoke, glancing sometimes at a screen showing photos of the victims.The guilty plea follows a series of jailhouse phone calls from Aldrich to The Associated Press expressing remorse and the intention to face the consequences for the shooting.
The attack at Club Q came over a year after Aldrich had been arrested for threatening their grandparents andVictims’ family members and survivors spoke at Monday's hearing about how their lives were forever altered by the terror that erupted just before midnight on Nov. 19 when the suspect walked into Club Q and indiscriminately fired an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle.
However, the charges against Aldrich were thrown out in July 2022 after Aldrich's mother and grandparents, the victims in the case, refused to cooperate with prosecutors, evading efforts to serve them with subpoenas to testify, according to court documents unsealed after the shooting.
Investigators later revealed that the two guns Aldrich had during the Club Q attack — the rifle and a handgun — appeared to be ghost guns, or firearms without serial numbers that are homemade and do not require an owner to pass a background check.
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