Families Of Club Q Victims Share Pain, Anger As Shooter Pleads Guilty To Murder
The shooter who killed five people and wounded more than 30 others at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ nightclub pleaded guilty on Monday to 5 counts of murder, 46 counts of attempted murder, and two counts of bias-motivated crime.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, who is now 23, will now serve life in prison for the Club Q shooting as part of a deal with prosecutors. Aldrich faced more than 300 charges, including for murder and hate crimes, for the mass shooting that took place during a drag show the night before Transgender Day of Remembrance in November 2022.
According to the criminal complaint, Aldrich entered Club Q wearing a bulletproof vest and armed with an AR-style rifle and handgun before firing into the crowd, killing Daniel Aston, Raymond Green Vance, Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh and Derrick Rump.
The court moved to sentencing procedures immediately following Aldrich’s guilty plea, and survivors and loved ones of the victims shared how their lives were forever changed that night.
Vance’s mother, Adriana Vance, begged the judge to hand down a brutal sentence as she grieved the death of her son. She called Vance a kind, loving and gentle man who touched the lives of those who surrounded him.
“This man doesn’t deserve to go on,” she said of Aldrich. “What matters now is that he never sees the sunrise or a sunset.”
Wyatt Kent, a drag performer who was celebrating his 23rd birthday on the night of the shooting, survived but lost his partner, Daniel Aston. Kent stood in front of Aldrich and the judge to express his forgiveness. He added that he lost his sense of safety with the shooting.
“I forgive this individual as they are a symbol of a broken system of hate and vitriol pushed against us as a community,” Kent said. “It is inexcusable the action and the pain and trauma and holes that have been created from this tragic evening.”
Anderson Lee Aldrich takes a seat after pleading guilty to murder and other crimes in a still image from courtroom Webex video on June 26, 2023.
Stephanie Clark recalled the moment she got the call that her sister Ashley Paugh died in the shooting. She had to share the news with her niece, Paugh’s daughter.
“The scream and the cries of ‘no, no, no’ and begging us to ‘please do something to bring our mommy back’ are forever etched in my mind,” Clark said. “That is something that I wish he would have to hear every day for the rest of his life.”
The attack was eventually interrupted when two patrons, Thomas James, a Navy sailor, and Richard Fierro, an Army veteran, disarmed Aldrich and began beating the shooter with the firearm. Other shooting survivors joined James and Fierro in stopping the shooter.
In an interview with The New York Times, Fierro said police arrived at the scene, saw him covered in blood with the handgun, and handcuffed him, not knowing whether he was a threat. He was eventually freed to see his family.
Aldrich, who according to their attorney uses they/them pronouns, was initially charged in December with 305 counts including first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, assault and bias-motivated crimes causing bodily injury. That number increased to 317 in January.
Photographs of victims of the Club Q shooting are on display at a memorial on November 23, 2022, in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Earlier this month, The Associated Press reported that a senior law enforcement source said the Department of Justice was still considering whether to file federal hate crime charges in the case.
Speaking at a news conference after Aldrich’s sentencing, the FBI’s Mark Michalek confirmed a federal investigation is underway into the shooter.
Previously, in a phone call with the AP, Aldrich had expressed a desire to take responsibility for what happened. But survivors questioned whether their newly expressed remorse was a ploy to avoid the federal death penalty, the AP reported.
Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen told reporters on Monday that he believed Aldrich’s use of they/them pronouns after the shooting was one of many acts of cowardice to avoid federal hate crime charges and a federal death sentence.
“There’s zero evidence prior to the shooting that he was nonbinary. There was nobody that indicated prior to the shooting that he ever identified as nonbinary,” Allen said.
“He exhibited extreme hatred for people in the LGBTQ+ community ― and other minority groups as well, I should say, and so I think it was a stilted effort to avoid any bias-motivated or hate charges.”
Xavier Kraus, a former friend and neighbor of Aldrich’s, told NBC News that the shooter had not used they/them pronouns in the past, adding that Aldrich had made racist or homophobic statements and created an online forum to express them.
In a bizarre, rambling interview with CBS 8 San Diego, Aldrich’s father, Aaron Brink, admitted that he didn’t even know his child was still living when he heard the news of the shooting. He then questioned Aldrich’s sexuality.
“I was scared. I was like ‘Oh, my God, shit, is he gay?’ And he’s not gay,” Brink told the TV station.
According to a news release by the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, Aldrich was also arrested in 2021, a year before the Club Q shooting, after their mother had reported that Aldrich threatened her with a homemade bomb and multiple weapons.
Video footage of the 2021 arrest obtained by the Denver Gazette shows an individual believed to be Aldrich wearing body armor and carrying a rifle inside the home.
“If they breach, I’ma fucking blow it to holy hell,” the individual can be heard saying about law enforcement. “Go ahead and come on in, boys. Let’s fucking see it.”
Allen, the prosecutor, told reporters on Monday that Aldrich was able to avoid background checks by purchasing unregistered firearms and having their mother buy a handgun.
