Colorado Springs Suspect Formally Charged in Club Q Shooting

Anderson Lee Aldrich, the suspected gunman accused of killing five people and injuring several more in a mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs last month, has been formally charged with 305 counts, including charges of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, assault, and bias-motivated crimes causing bodily injury.

Wearing a bright-yellow prison jumpsuit, Aldrich appeared in court in-person on Tuesday, where Colorado’s Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen announced the charges, which range between Class 1 and Class 5 felonies.

Aldrich, whose attorneys say identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, faces up to life in prison without parole if convicted on the first-degree murder charges.

“When you file 305 counts in a case, that tells the public, this community, this state, and this nation that we are taking this case as serious as we possibly can,” Allen tells reporters in a news conference after the hearing. “We are going to prosecute this case to the fullest extent of the law.”

On November 19, the suspect allegedly entered Club Q with an AR-style weapon and a handgun and opened fire. The attack was halted by two patrons, an army veteran and a transgender woman, who took down and restrained Aldrich until police arrived.

Those who lost their lives were Daniel Aston, Raymond Green Vance, Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh, and Derrick Rump.

“We’re not going to tolerate actions against community members based on their sexual identity,” Allen says. “Members of that community have been harassed, intimidated, and abused for too long. That’s not going to occur in the Fourth Judicial District.”

Aldrich has been held up until now on preliminary charges, including five counts of first-degree murder and five counts of a bias-motivated crime (hate crime) causing bodily injury, per the El Paso County Court’s online docket. In a hearing on November 23, a judge ordered the gunman to be held without bond.

Photos courtesy of Colorado Springs Police Department and David Zalubowski