Anderson Lee Aldrich: What we know about the suspect in the Colorado Springs LGBTQ nightclub shooting

CNN
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Just moments before midnight Saturday, a gunman entered Club Q, a beloved LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and immediately began shooting into the crowd, killing 5 people and injuring 25 others, according to police.

The suspected shooter was identified as 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, Police Chief Adrian Vasquez said Sunday.

A long rifle was used in the shooting, according to the police chief. Two firearms were recovered at the scene.

Investigators have yet to determine a motive, Vasquez said, though they are considering whether the attack was a hate crime.

Here’s what we know about the suspected gunman.

Police received several 911 calls about the shooting beginning at 11:56 p.m., according to police. Officers were dispatched at 11:57 p.m. and an officer arrived at Club Q at midnight. The suspect was detained at 12:02 a.m., police said.

The shooting lasted only minutes because people inside the club were able to subdue the suspect, police said.

“At least two heroic people inside the club confronted and fought with the suspect and were able to stop the suspect,” Vasquez said. “We owe them a great debt of thanks.”

The suspect was taken into police custody and was being treated at a hospital Sunday, police said, adding that officers did not shoot at the suspect.

Police said Sunday they are investigating the suspect’s history, though they declined to share details.

Aldrich was arrested in June 2021 in connection with a bomb threat that 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.

Two law enforcement sources confirmed the suspect in Saturday’s shooting and the bomb threat were the same person based on his name and date of birth.

Video obtained by CNN shows Aldrich surrendering to law enforcement last year after allegedly making a bomb threat. Footage from the Ring door camera of the owner of the home shows Aldrich exiting the house with his hands up and barefoot, and walking to sheriff’s deputies.

Sheriff’s deputies responded to a report by the man’s mother that he was “threatening to cause harm to her with a homemade bomb, multiple weapons, and ammunition,” according to the release. Deputies called the suspect, and he “refused to comply with orders to surrender,” the release said, leading them to evacuate nearby homes.

Several hours after the initial police call, the sheriff’s crisis negotiations unit was able to get Aldrich to leave the house, and he was arrested after walking out the front door. Authorities did not find any explosives in the home.

Leslie Bowman, who owns the house where Aldrich’s mother lived, provided CNN the videos. Bowman said Aldrich’s mother rented a room in the house for a little over a year and that Aldrich would come visit his mother there.

Attempts by CNN to reach Aldrich’s mother for comment were unsuccessful.

It is not immediately clear how the bomb threat case was resolved, but the Colorado Springs Gazette reported that the district attorney’s office said no formal charges were pursued in the case. The district attorney’s office did not respond to a request for comment from CNN.

Aldrich also called the Gazette in an attempt to get an earlier story about the 2021 incident removed from the website, the newspaper reported. “There is absolutely nothing there, the case was dropped, and I’m asking you either remove or update the story,” Aldrich said in a voice message, according to the Gazette.