Horrifying surveillance photos showed the Colorado Gay Club shooter moments before he killed five people and injured 25.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, who is non-binary and uses the pronouns “they/they,” was seen in photos released in unsealed documents as he parked his car with an AR-15 assault rifle at 11:55 p.m. on November 19 parked in the Club Q parking lot.
An El Paso County judge also released the documents from Aldrich’s 2021 bomb threat indictment, which were dropped after her family refused to cooperate.
The black and white photos showed Aldrich gun raised as they prepared to enter the club. Aldrich shot two people dead as soon as he entered.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, was spotted in newly released surveillance footage just before he opened fire at Club Q in Colorado Springs. Aldrich, who is non-binary and uses she/them pronouns, was seen getting out of his car with his AR-15 assault rifle at 11:55 p.m
Aldrich was seen entering the bar with his assault rifle raised. When he opened it, he shot two people
In his booking photo, Aldrich looked battered, with bruises to his face and neck, apparently sustained when he was hit by bar patrons
Photos of victims of a mass shooting at a nearby gay nightclub are on display at a Colorado Springs memorial on November 22, 2022
Footage of the shooter was provided to investigators by Matthew Haynes. The original videos recorded in Hayne’s surveillance footage contain sound.
Aldrich appeared in the footage minutes before he fired several shots and was knocked down by bar patrons at 00:02.
Footage was also taken from inside the club, but has not been released.
Aldrich was also arrested in June 2021 on charges of making a bomb threat that led to the evacuation of about 10 homes. The details of the incident were released after a judge ordered them unsealed.
The 22-year-old threatened to harm family members and boasted of possessing bomb-making materials, ammunition and several weapons, according to law enforcement documents.
El Paso County District Attorney Michael Allen spoke hours after a judge unsealed the case, indicating the suspect threatened to kill relatives and became the “next mass killer” more than a year before the nightclub attack will.
Aldrich’s testimony in the case, which was dropped over the summer, has raised questions about why authorities didn’t attempt to confiscate the suspect’s guns under Colorado’s “red flag” law.
Judge Robin Chittum said the “profound” public interest in the case outweighed Aldrich’s privacy rights. The judge added that the scrutiny of court cases is “fundamental to our system of government”.
“The only way for this verification is to break the seal,” she said.
Aldrich was sent to prison on suspicion of threats and kidnapping. The case was later dropped and officials have declined to talk about it, citing a state law that requires dismissed cases to be sealed.
Pictured: Investigators at the scene of the Club Q nightclub, where a drag show was taking place, when they say Aldrich walked in and opened fire. The club’s owners say Aldrich arrived with “tremendous firepower” — an AR-15 rifle, six rounds of ammo and a pistol
An El Paso County judge released the documents Thursday and announced that Aldrich’s charges in the 2021 bomb threat were also dropped after her family refused to cooperate
The judge’s order to release the recordings comes after news organizations, including The Associated Press, tried to unseal the documents.
The papers detail how Aldrich told terrified grandparents about guns and bomb-making materials in the grandparents’ basement and vowed not to let them interfere in plans that Aldrich would be “the next mass murderer” and “burst into flames.”
Aldrich then pointed a Glock pistol at the grandparents as they pleaded for their lives, saying, “You boys die today… I’m loaded and ready.”
The documents also describe how the grandparents fled for their lives and called 911 and how fears of a bomb blast prompted the evacuation of nearby homes.
Aldrich then found himself at a standoff with SWAT teams, warning against armor-piercing rounds and a determination to “go to the end”.
Eventually a barefoot Aldrich came out with his hands up and surrendered.
Anderson Lee Aldrich can be seen in a family photo at left and at right in a June 2021 livestream threatening to blow up a house where his mother was renting a room. He now faces five counts of murder in the Colorado gay nightclub shooting
Before Anderson Lee Aldrich allegedly carried out the fatal shooting at a Colorado gay nightclub, the suspect had threatened to kill his grandparents in 2021 for getting in the way of an elaborate plan to become “the next mass killer.”
Aldrich was also the subject of a tip the FBI received a day before the bomb threat. Agents closed the case just weeks later.
Under Colorado law, records are automatically sealed when a case is dropped and defendants will not be prosecuted as was the case with Aldrich in 2021.
Once sealed, officials cannot acknowledge that the records exist, and the process of unsealing the documents initially takes place behind closed doors, with no file to follow and an unnamed judge.
“This is one of the weirdest hearings I’ve ever had,” Chittum said. “I have a hearing on a case that none of us are allowed to acknowledge.”
Chittum ruled despite objections from the suspect’s attorney and mother.
Public defender Joseph Archambault argued that while the public had an interest in the case, Aldrich’s right to a fair trial was paramount.
“This ensures that there is no presumption of innocence,” Archambault said.
Aldrich is shown last year showing up at the house where his mother rented a room after he threatened to blow up his grandparents, with whom he lived nearby. His mother helped him into the house and had called the landlord to tell her not to tell anyone where he was
In this image from El Paso County District Court video, Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, center, sits during a court appearance in Colorado Springs on Tuesday. They were formally charged on Tuesday with 305 felonies, including hate crimes and murder, in the November 19 shooting at Club Q
During Thursday’s hearing, Aldrich sat at the defense table, sometimes looking straight ahead or down, and seemed to show no reaction when her mother’s attorney asked that the case be kept under wraps.
An attorney for Aldrich’s mother argued that unsealing the case would increase the likelihood that Laura Voepel would suffer harm, harassment, intimidation, or retribution.
Aldrich was formally charged on Tuesday with 305 felonies, including hate crimes and murder, in the November 19 shooting at Club Q.
A murder conviction would carry the harshest penalty – probably life imprisonment.