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Colorado prosecutors have filed hate crime and murder charges against the suspect in Saturday night’s anti-LGBTQ mass shooting. Five people, including employees of the LGBTQ nightclub Club Q were killed, another 25 were injured. The suspect is believed to have used an AR-15 style rifle.
“Colorado court records show that Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, was charged with five counts of murder and five counts of bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury. A Colorado judge granted prosecutors’ request to seal court records related to Mr. Aldrich’s arrest until the conclusion of the investigation,” The New York Times reports.
Patrons bravely were able to subdue the suspect, hitting him with his own gun. Police arrived minutes after the first 911 call. The suspect was hospitalized and is in custody.
MSNBC legal analyst Glenn Kirschner says prosecutors have responded quickly with the bias crime charge.
“Members of the L.G.B.T.Q. community in and around Colorado Springs said Club Q had felt like a haven in a conservative city long known for anti-gay activism,” The Times adds.
“This club was a refuge for our community,” Bird Berg, 31, a produce manager at a grocery store who attended a vigil with her wife, said. “I’m completely devastated.”
Two patrons are beg hailed as heroes after disabling the suspected shooter.
“One customer took down the gunman and was assisted by another,” Matthew Haynes, one of the club owners, The Times reports separately. “He saved dozens and dozens of lives. Stopped the man cold. Everyone else was running away, and he ran toward him.”
CNN reports investigators have yet to identify the suspect’s motive. Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez says the suspect “has determined not to speak to investigators.”
Aldrich, CNN adds, “was arrested in June 2021 in connection with a bomb threat which led to a standoff at his mother’s home, according to a news release from the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office at the time and his mother’s former landlord. Colorado Springs is in El Paso County.”
No charges were filed in that case.
Chief Vasquez spoke with CBS Mornings earlier today. Watch video below or at this link.
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