Colorado Gay Club Shooter Charged With Hate Crimes – I24NEWS – i24NEWS
Anderson Aldrich faces 305 criminal counts, including 48 hate crimes and 10 counts of first-degree murder
The suspect accused of killing five people and wounding 17 others in a shooting attack at gay club in Colorado was charged on Tuesday with 305 criminal counts, including murder and hate crimes.
Anderson Lee Aldrich has been in custody since the rampage last month at Club Q in Colorado Springs. The counts against the 22-year-old include 10 counts of first-degree murder and 48 hate crime charges, one for each person known to have been in the club at the time of the shooting.
Investigators say Aldrich entered Club Q – a sanctuary for the LGBTQ+ community in the midwestern U.S. state’s southern, mostly conservative city – and began shooting during a drag queen’s birthday celebration with an AR-15-style rifle. The attack ceased after patrons wrestled the suspect to the ground and beat him into submission.
“I was horrified and angry to learn about the shooting,” recalled Sara Chatfield, an assistant professor of Political Science at the University of Denver. “It was especially troubling to me that the shooting initially seemed to have been a bias-motivated hate crime targeting LGBTQ people, and occurring on the eve of the Transgender Day of Remembrance,” she told i24NEWS.
Aldrich has been held on hate crime charges, but prosecutors previously said they were unsure whether such counts would stick if there was no adequate evidence that it was a bias-motivated crime, which shattered the peace of the city’s LGBTQ+ community.
Colorado’s District Attorney Michael Allen noted that the murder charges would carry the harshest penalty – likely life in prison – but added that it was important to show the community that hate crimes are not tolerated.
“We are not going to tolerate actions against community members based on their sexual identity,” Allen said. “Members of that community have been harassed, intimidated, and abused for too long.”
The people of Colorado have been in a state of disarray since the tragic and shocking attack. American flags across the state have been at half-mast, establishments are bearing rainbow-colored signs in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community, and an extensive memorial was quickly erected at Club Q in remembrance of the victims.
