The man suspected of killing five people and injuring several others at a gay bar in Colorado Springs on Saturday night faces murder and hate crime charges.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, faces five counts of murder and five counts of causing bodily harm in a bias-motivated crime, according to online court records obtained Monday.
Of the 25 injured at Club Q, at least seven were in critical condition. Some were also injured trying to flee, and it was unclear whether they had all been shot, authorities said.
A law enforcement official said the suspect used an AR-15 type semi-automatic weapon in the attack last Saturday night, but a handgun and additional ammo clips were also used. were found.
Bouquets of flowers, candles and signs emblazoned with ‘Love over Hate’ messages littered the ground near Club Q on Monday, where Anderson Lee Aldrich fired into a crowd gathered for a drag show marking the Day of the transgender remembrance, dedicated to the victims of transphobic violence and celebrated internationally on November 20.
“I looked up and saw the shadow of a tall person holding a gun. I saw the rifle, ”said Michael Anderson, bartender of the establishment. “Burst after burst. It was absolutely terrifying”.
“I dived behind the bar. Glass was flying all around me like there were bullets smashing the bottles and whatever was there,” he continued.
heroic intervention
The massacre, which only lasted a few minutes, ended thanks to the heroic intervention of two people who fought with the suspect, according to the police. Their identity was still unknown on Monday.
A man notably grabbed the shooter’s rifle and then hit him with it before tackling him to the ground, said Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers, N.New York Times.
“Everything happened very quickly. The individual was completely subdued two minutes after midnight,” the mayor said, adding that everything seemed to point to the fact that it was “a hate crime” even though the police have not yet officially given the motive. of the attack.
Questions also arose as to why authorities in 2021 did not attempt to remove Aldrich’s weapons when he was arrested after his mother reported that he had threatened her with a gun. homemade bomb and other weapons.
Authorities said at the time that no explosives were found, but gun control advocates question why police didn’t try to invoke Colorado’s ‘red flag’ law then. , which would have allowed the authorities to seize the weapons mentioned by his mother. No court records indicate that a prosecutor filed kidnapping or threatening charges against Aldrich at the time.
The shooting brought back memories of the 2016 massacre at gay nightclub “Pulse” in Orlando, Florida, which left 49 people dead. Colorado has seen several shootings, including at Columbine High School in 1999, at a suburban Denver movie theater in 2012 and at a Boulder supermarket last year.
It was the sixth killing this month in the United States. Six months ago, the country was moved by the death of 21 people, including 19 children, in a school in Uvalde, Texas.