New images show Colorado gay club shooter sneaking inside with his gun
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Chilling surveillance photos show the Colorado gay club shooter moments before he killed five people and wounded 25.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, was seen leaving his car in the Club Q parking lot with an AR-15 assault rifle at 11:55 pm on November 19.
An El Paso County judge released the photos, along with previously sealed documents related to Aldrich’s 2021 bomb threat charges, which were withdrawn after his family refused to cooperate.
The black and white photos show Aldrich with his gun raised as they prepare to enter the club. Minutes later, two people were shot.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, was seen in newly released surveillance footage moments before they opened fire at Club Q in Colorado Springs. Aldrich, who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, was seen getting out of his car with an AR-15 assault rifle at 11:55 p.m.
Aldrich entered the bar with his assault rifle raised and immediately shot two people.
In his booking photo, Aldrich appeared battered, with bruises on his face and neck apparently sustained when he was beaten by patrons at the bar.
Photographs of the victims of the shooting on display at a memorial near the club
They then fired several rounds, before being tackled to the floor by patrons of the bar at 12:02 am.
Images of the parking lot were provided to investigators by Club Q owner Matthew Haynes. The original videos captured in Haynes’ surveillance footage contain audio.
Pictures of the interior of the club were also taken but have not been released.
Other documents ordered by the judge revealed that Aldrich had been arrested in June 2021 on bomb threat charges. That incident led to the evacuation of about 10 homes.
The 22-year-old had threatened to harm family members and bragged about having bomb-making materials, ammunition and multiple weapons, according to the documents.
The case indicated that the suspect had threatened to kill family members and intended to become the “next mass murderer” more than a year before the nightclub attack.
Aldrich’s statements in the case, which was dropped over the summer, have raised questions about why authorities did not attempt to seize the suspect’s weapons under Colorado’s ‘red flag’ law.
Judge Robin Chittum said the “deep” public interest in the case outweighed Aldrich’s privacy rights. The judge added that scrutiny of court cases is “fundamental to our system of government.”
“The only way for that scrutiny to happen is for this to open up,” he said.
Aldrich was jailed on suspicion of felony threat and kidnapping. The case was later dropped and officials declined to discuss it, citing a state law that requires dismissed cases to be sealed.
Investigators at the location of the Club Q nightclub, where Aldrich arrived with an AR-15 rifle
An El Paso County judge released the documents Thursday and announced that Aldrich’s 2021 bomb threat charges were dropped after his family refused to cooperate.
The judge’s order to release the records comes after news organizations attempted to release the documents.
The documents detail how Aldrich told his frightened grandparents about the firearms and bomb-making materials they kept in his basement, vowing not to let them interfere with Aldrich’s plans to be “the next mass murderer” and ” go up in flames.”
Aldrich then pointed a Glock pistol at the grandparents as they pleaded for their lives, saying, “Die today…I’m loaded and ready.”
Her grandparents fled for their lives and called 911, and fear of a possible bomb explosion prompted the evacuation of nearby homes.
Aldrich was then in a standoff with SWAT teams and warned them that they had armor-piercing rounds and the determination to “go all the way.”
Finally, a barefoot Aldrich came out with his hands up and surrendered.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, left, in a family photo and, right, in a June 2021 livestream where they threatened to blow up a house where
Before Aldrich carried out the deadly shooting, the suspect had threatened to kill his grandparents in 2021 for getting in the way of a plan to become “the next mass murderer.”
Aldrich was also the subject of a tip received by the FBI one day before the bomb threat. Agents closed the case just a few weeks later.
Under Colorado law, records are automatically sealed when a case is dropped and defendants are not prosecuted, as was the case in the 2021 Aldrich case.
Once sealed, officials cannot acknowledge that the records exist, and the process to open the documents initially occurs behind closed doors, with no file to follow and an anonymous judge.
“This is one of the strangest hearings I’ve ever had,” Judge Chittum said. I’m going to have a hearing on a case that none of us are going to admit.
Chittum ruled over the objections of the lawyer and the suspect’s mother.
Public defender Joseph Archambault argued that while the public has an interest in the case, Aldrich’s right to a fair trial was paramount.
“This will ensure that there is no presumption of innocence,” Archambault said.
Aldrich is pictured last year, appearing at the house where his mother rented a room, after threatening to blow up his grandparents’ basement.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, center, appears in El Paso County District Court Tuesday where they were indicted in the Nov. 19 Club Q shooting.
During Thursday’s hearing, Aldrich sat at the defense table looking forward or down at times, and seemed to show no reaction when his mother’s lawyer asked that the case remain sealed.
A lawyer for Aldrich’s mother argued that opening the case would increase the likelihood that she would suffer harm, harassment, intimidation or retaliation.
Aldrich was indicted Tuesday on 305 criminal counts, including hate crimes and murder, in the Nov. 19 shooting at Club Q.
Conviction on the murder charges would carry the harshest penalty, likely life in prison.